TekkonKinkreet: Konkreet Sky
by Dorchica
Summary: Fujimura takes the orphans under his wing and they now have the chance to live a normal life in a different town. The brothers' views on this new life sharply differs, weakening their bond dangerously. Black's dark side is stirring as his depression grows and White's presence is no longer enough to keep the Minotaur still. How will the boys' fate continue?
1. Steel Wind

Hello there, readers! This is a fanfiction that continues TekkonKinkreet the movie in my own way (: The story picks up where the movie ended and now I'm concentrating on Black and White's life after the incidents. This chapter begins with a prologue that sums up the events that occurred in the movie. After that it will completely center around the boys life and their way into adulthood. Due to this, I'll rate this fiction to R, maybe as time progresses into M, because I have a lot in mind, and they are not very child-friendly.

This is my very first Tekkon fiction, and it's quite a challenge, because Tekkon has an atmosphere like none other! Enjoy! ^

The Sun barely arose from its peaceful slumber, radiating warmth and light. It was barely the crack of dawn, and the people were still sleeping in the town our story is taking place. While most of the people were still in the beautiful or terrifying realm of their dream world, there were people who were wide awake– the people who had a war earlier that night, before the beginning of the new day.

Even though Snake and his fellow colleagues were eliminated, the corruption his company brought was unstoppable. As he mentioned before, "The broken parts" were almost immediately replaced by new people, and began the repairs on the damaged amusement park without a second hesitation. His demise was just a small stumble in the corporation's plan. In their world, the words "grieving" and "respect" are nonexistent. Time is money. Money is power – that's how they work. And the more power you have, the more you can achieve in this world.

Defying such a powerful, merciless corporation such as Snake's is equal with death. There were however two orphan boys who stood up for their town – a district called Treasure Town. And these street urchins fought a war against the corruption in order to save their beloved city.

They are the "Cats" – a pair of siblings called Black and White. Black, the older brother, who's only believes are in violence and that his purpose in life is nothing else but protecting and taking care of his little brother, White. White, the smaller boy who tries to be physically as strong as Black, but his true strength comes from his little heart. This is the strength that makes him the good and wiser one out of the two, and keeps Black humanity in order aswell. However, health is not the strongest point of White – he sometimes spaces out and "talks silly talk" as his older brother puts, or in the middle of a night, he even mindlessly wanders around, making Black worried sick, and have him combing through the whole town only to always found him sound asleep in the car, which serves as their home.

When this new company set foot in Treasure Town, they immediately took steps in order to frighten them away. These steps soon made them realize that this new company was far more evil than they ever could have imagined. Going up against them turned out to be almost fatal – the younger one of the brothers, White almost lost his life. He got stabbed in the stomach while he was trying to run away from his pursuer. His older brother, Black couldn't find him, but White miraculously found his older brother just in time to be taken to the hospital with the help of the two polices officers, Fujimura and Sawada.

White was in coma for two long days. Black stayed with him all the time faithfully, knowing his little brother would want to see him when he first opens his eyes. After miraculously recovering from the stab wound, Black had to make a hard decision. The police and their care-taker, Gramps (an old homeless man, who took pity on them and served the role as a real grandfather) tried to convince him that this town was too dangerous for White and he needs a home and someone to properly look after him. After many days of pleading, Black finally agreed and forcefully, but regrettably pushed White away from himself, handing him to the police to take care of him.

This decision pushed both of them into an emotional turmoil. Black went on a rampage and began hurting everyone he could find alive and breathing, while White went unusually quiet and monotone. As the brothers' lives turned into a living pain, the amusement park kept building, and Snake's corporation was demolishing more and more houses, killing many homeless people in the process. The young orphan, in despair and clinging to his last bits of sanity, walked into the opened amusement park, where Snake's hitmen were already waiting for him. A small fight engaged between the two mysterious killers and Black. The boy was injured in the fight, and when he was about to receive the finishing blow, his mind finally snapped. He had envisioned himself his savior, the feared Minotaur, who turned out to be none other than himself – his Dark side. In Minotaur form, he killed the two assassins in cold blood – he still doesn't remember _how_he managed to catch an arrow in mid-air and how he stabbed one in the neck, the other in the stomach. The only proof he had were the dead bodies, and that his hands were soaked in blood. After the fight, he had a mental battle with himself and his dark side. His redemption came from the person whom he thought he'd never see again: his little brother, who somehow felt the rage and fear inside his older sibling, and with an unexplainable way he managed to break Black's dark side's mental defense and call to him, triggering Black to remember White and remind himself he's not as evil as the Minotaur declared he is.

With the help of the two police officers, the siblings were finally reunited. Not knowing how he knew, White led Fujimura and Sawada to the playground, claiming that Black will be there soon to meet up with him. Mister Fujimura doubted the little boy first, but to his surprise the other boy did appear out of the blue – literally. As he was falling through the sky, White let out a joyful laugh, something Sawada, the younger police officer hadn't heard ever since White got separated from Black. After landing in front of them, the older one did not know what to do first, so he stood there awkwardly, gazing at them with large bags under his eyes.

White knew what was going on inside him. Words were not always necessary to White. So, with a chuckle, he stretched out his hand towards him with a toothy grin. Greatly ashamed of himself, Black was slightly reluctant to accept it first, but when a small breeze hit him and he looked at his little grinning brother he finally remembered why he wanted to come back in the first place. With a content smile on his face, he timidly took White's hand with his injured one, making the old Fujimura growl in disapproval of his wound. The young Sawada was grinning just as much as White was, happy for those two for getting back together again.

And this is the point where Black and White's new journey is about to begin…

Another small breeze passed by, slightly ruffling the clothes and hairs of the boys. Black was staring at his and White's intertwined hands, noticing the first time his hand was in pain (up until now, his mind and body were too busy to rush to his brother) and not because White was clenching his injured hand. As he continued to stare, blood to began to seep from the wound and slowly it tainted White's small white hand. The smaller boy gasped and both of the youngsters turned their heads towards the older officer when mister Fujimura's slightly rusted voice rang,

"That injury looks serious, Black. You must have a doctor to take a look at it and treat it professionally." a ghost of a smile appeared on his lips when he saw Black's rare childish pout , "White needs you more than ever." he added warmly. White took no hesitation in who's side he should take,

"Mister Fujimura is right, Black!" White yelled as he non-too gently pulled Black's hand away, not noticing the pained expression and the wince his older brother made, "I just gots a great idea! We go to hospital!" he continued with an excited and concerned tone. Sadly White didn't notice that pulling Black's hand is not so painless to him.

"O-kay, White, just let me go!" he tried to sound as normal as possible, but his sound was slightly high-pitched and a small tear of pain appeared in his eye as his little brother kept a firm grip on his injured hand. His voice did the trick, and White let go of his hand with a confused expression. Mr. Fujimura took Black by the shoulder and led him towards the exit of the playground, followed by a puzzled White and an amused Sawada. Even though Black hated to be touched by anyone besides White, as he looked up to the old officer, the man could see a hint of thankfulness in the boy's eyes as he spoke,

"I think I need to have a good wash up first." he said, shame passing through his expression, "I doubt the doctor would even glance at me while I'm in this state."

"Black don't stink bad to me!" White chirped from behind, making Black look behind himself to see his little brother walking with Sawada. He had a sincere smile on his face. "You only smell like a one day old garbage!" Black's face dropped and he turned back, cradling his injured hand, while Sawada was snickering beside White.

"Thanks White, I feel so much better." he sighed and tried to stop the bleeding with the handkerchief Fujimura gave to him that moment.

"You can have a shower at the hospital too. The public bath is too far away." Mister Fujimura said and they turned around another corner. As it was still very early in the morning, not many people were on the street, "The Doc will surely let you use it."

"Yeah." Black bowed his head, but that caused his overgrown darkened hair to fall into his face, frustrating him. How could he live with this long hair? Now everything he ignored all these months started to annoy him at the same time. The feeling of being unclean, his greasy hair, his bleeding hand…

"I can cut your hair if you'd like." Sawada offered as he saw Black's frustration with his hair. That took the darker boy by surprise with so much power he forgot to voice his reply and only nodded.

White chided in and started skipping in his walk "You needs to wash it."

No one replied to White's chirping and the rest of the small journey was uneventful. The hospital was open of course and they quickly rushed in as Black's pain was getting more intense with every step they took. He immediately forgot about bath – he needed treatment and fast! The same doctor who took care of White greeted them and was surprised that instead of the younger sibling, the older one was the injured now. He didn't question anything when he saw how pale the boy was and the amount of blood he tried to dry with the handkerchief. Apparently, he made a small trail of blood on the floor as he rushed in.

The Doc quickly ushered them into the examination room. The boy obediently, but wobbly followed him and was glad when he was offered a bed to sit up on. The bandage he always wore on his hands when he went to fight was quickly removed and tossed away (White picked it up) and the doctor gasped at the wound he saw. His hand looked like it had been impaled by a huge force.

"My boy… how did you get such a… horrible injury?" he inquired in a whisper only to receive a small grunt, signaling Black doesn't want to answer. Heck, he doesn't remember what he did most of the night!

"How's he holding up, doc?" Sawada asked and White hugged the officer's knee upon hearing the doctor's gasp. As Black let out a pained cry when the doctor used alcohol to disinfect the wound, Fujimura looked at him in pity. The older boy clenched the bed sheets and used up all of his willpower to not punch the doctor in the face. He was trying to help him despite the pain he caused.

"His hand… it looks like as if… something impaled it. It almost tore through his whole hand…"

Black's eyes widened. _Impaled?__But__when__…__?_

Then, in a flash he remembered. When he was the "Minotaur" and he spoke about power, an arrow was shot towards him. As the Minotaur, he envisioned that his savior caught the arrow by it's neck. But it seems like in reality, instead of catching the arrow by it's neck, he caught the arrow by it's _head_. And since it was shot with full force, the arrow almost tore through his palm.

Black yelped again and tears started to stream from his eyes when the doctor inspected his wound more. White gasped and held onto Sawada tighter, "I must sew it up… it'll be painful but…" he looked up at the boy in pity. Black's eyes were red in tears, and the bags under his eyes looked like luggages now,

"Just do it doc." he hissed through gritted teeth, "I need my hand."

The doctor nodded, "I'll get you a lot of anesthetic. " He turned to the others "I think it would be wise if White wouldn't be watching the whole procedure." While the two officers nodded, White immediately threw a tantrum. Luckily Sawada knew him enough to know this would happen, and immediately embraced the little boy who was throwing his arms and legs in the air.

"NO! NO! I'M NOT LEAVING BLACK! HE NEEDS ME!" he yelled and was about to tear himself away from Sawada when Black yelled too,

"WHITE." White stopped fighting in that instant and directed his gaze at his brother. "I'll be fine! Just go to another room, and I'll come back to you, okay?" his eyes were burning with determination as his little brother looked at him with confusion. "I'm not gonna leave you again, White. I promise."

That calmed the younger brother down, who nodded and let the young officer lead him out from the room. When he was alone with the doctor, he let out a tired sigh. He was scared, and he knew White knew of his fear. But he'll be damned if he'll show weakness in front of his little brother. He needs him now more than ever. He screwed it up big time, and he has to make up for everything White has gone through. With a small bow of his head, he closed his eyes, not even wanting to see the whole activity.

"Let's get this over with, doc." the doctor nodded, and grabbed an injection and a small tube of anesthetic.

"I'll try to make this as painless as I can, Black." he said in sympathy and positioned the needle into his palm. The boy nodded and the doctor began the procedure.

Even though his eyes were closed, Black still felt the familiar prick and how the liquid entered his veins. As the doctor worked his on to patch the tough boy up, the injured boy's whimpers echoed in the small closed room, making the doctor's heart wrench.

In the next room were Sawada and White. Mister Fujimura went to the hospital's cafeteria in order to buy something for all four of them to eat. White was now sitting on the edge of a bed, while Sawada was flipping through a magazine, making sure White would be able to read it too. It was a magazine about the latest celebrity gossips.

Sawada noticed how easy it was to occupy White's simple mind – he kept staring at the pages with interest, but never said a word. As he was reading, he let out a chuckle, startling White a little,

"Why are you laughing, Sawada?" the small boy asked. Still smiling, Sawada replied,

"I just read a small article about a famous actor who got drunk and did silly things. Do you want to read too? I saw how you are looking at this magazine." White looked up to him, innocence radiating from his whole self but not replying. The officer raised an eyebrow.

"What, these kind of stuff don't interest you?" White slowly cast his eyes down and murmured something. Curious, the officer leaned closer to him.

"I can't read." the little boy mumbled. Sawada straightened himself and looked at him, "Black reads to me always. He always reads fairy tales to me." he looked up to his care taker and gave him his signature toothy grin "He knows which stories I likes the most." His grin faded a bit "And he knows I hates the story of the ant and the grasshopper. That's why he doesn't read that to me."

That was the moment Fujimura chose to enter the room his hands full with edible baked goods. White immediately sprung up from the bed and Sawada closed his magazine and Fujimura bent a little down to give some snacks to the small boy.

"How's it going boys?" he asked as White began munching on a bunch of fried rolls. With his mouth full, White immediately began babbling,

"Sawada's reading! Didja know that I can't read?" he looked up at mister Fujimura with an expression that said that this was the most incredible thing in the world. The old officer was not surprised about White's inability to read though. If he was unable to dress himself, it was highly unlikely that he ever leaned towards literature in any way. White's face was full of crumbles and as the officer noticed, he hadn't swallowed anything he ate yet. At this, he scowled,

"White, swallow before you talk. It's impolite to talk with your mouth full!" White immediately swallowed what was in his mouth and grinned his wise grin again,

"Ham tastes great with strawberry jam, didja know that?" he chirped and bit into his roll again. His wise statement only made an awkward silence. Satisfied with the amount of wisdom he shared, the small boy began humming to himself and hopped back onto the bed. Moments later the doctor entered, smoking his cigarette. All three residents of the room turned to him. His presence made White stop eating, but he did not budge from his spot from the bed when he inquired about his big brother's health. The doctor let out the fume, his old scarred face lit by a small smile.

"Your brother is strong, White. But he has his limits." his face darkened a little making fear stir in White "I just don't know how to put this…" he looked sideways, making all of his listeners be in shock, fearing the worst, "…to not embarrass Black but… he fainted out of exhaustion during the patching up." he put the base of the cigarette to his mouth "It wasn't a disadvantage at all though. He did not feel any pain, and I could work on him easily." White let out a happy sigh knowing everything went smoothly. Sawada put an encouraging hand onto White's shoulder and smiled at him. The doctor smiled.

"He's going to be fine. He has to take it easy, especially not to put any pressure onto his injured hand and he'll be as good as new. But first, as I noticed, he has to catch up on his sleep. He seems like he hadn't slept for days." White thanked Sawada and walked up to his brother's savior while stuffing the remaining roll into his mouth. The doctor knew what White would ask and he put a hand on his head.

"Can I visit him?" he asked after he swallowed. The doctor only nodded, and the little boy immediately took off to Black's resting room. Mister Fujimura sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Those two are inseparable." he said as Sawada walked up to him, waiting for his order. "No matter what happens, they always have each other's back."

White arrived to the threshold of his big brother's resting room. He peeked inside to find his older brother tucked inside the bed. The small boy smiled. Ever since they were little they always slept in the seats of the car that served as their home. He couldn't recall any time he had a pillowed resting place, like a bed. He's been resting in a nice fluffy bed ever since he got severely injured, but not his big brother. White also noticed that his brother actually looked peaceful, despite the wound that was now taken care of. His hand was now bandaged up, no longer bloody and he was sleeping with his face facing the ceiling. Keeping low, he walked up to his bed, watching his movements, hoping he's not waking him up in the process. Slowly, he lifted the cover and slipped next to his brother. His response was a small groan and he moved slightly away from his brother, giving him space. White climbed in next to him and put the cover back on them. The older one mumbled something and turned his head away from him and continued his slumber. White grinned, and hugged him, burying his face into his shoulder. Black's response was another mumble and his head hit his little brother's forehead. The younger sibling sighed happily and drifted off into sleep aswell.


	2. The Steps of Sanity

Chapter 2

_The Steps of Sanity_

As it turned out, White's decision of staying with his brother was not just out of the brotherly bond they shared. He didn't tell the officers the feeling he felt – once again he felt that cold, stabbing feeling of panic and fear – the same one that kept his brother in his clutches and shook him out of reality. This time however in the form of a nightmare, instead of the Minotaur rampaging in the city.

He clutched onto his brother tightly, signaling he is here outside of his nightmarish realm. To outsiders it seemed like White is clinging to Black. But in reality, Black once again was cast to the deepest pits of his own Hell, founded by guilt and sorrow. He just happened to have a great pokerface when it came to showing emotions .His sleeps, however, were an exception. As time passed, his breathing became slightly ragged, and his brows kept furrowing. His body shook several times as he lived through the nightmare his unconscious mind projected to him. White woke up to the hard knock he received, when Black trashed his head side to side. In response, the little boy held onto him more, which seemed to relax the older boy a bit.

No one saw the horrible occurrences he did. Neither the ones in his dreams nor those he really had seen in real life. And he was reliving the fear he felt at those times.

The older boy was once again standing in the deep depths of the Nothing. All around him blood flowed, creating a sickeningly beautiful dome above him. As he desperately looked down, he saw he was floating above the bottomless Darkness.

_**You have betrayed me, Black.**_

Hissed a familiar voice into Black's ear. Dear God, it was too familiar! The frightened boy glanced around franticly, searching for the voice's owner, but he couldn't find it. As it spoke, it felt like it was everywhere!

_**But I can still forgive you.**_

"I don't want your shitty forgiveness!" Black yelled into the Nothing. To his desperate yell, a small dot appeared in the distance. Confused, Black watched as the dot slowly turned out to be a group of crows. Their echoing "kaw" –ing created a sickening atmosphere, the sadistic melodic sound pounding in Black's ears. As they closed in Black realized they are not going to change route and they will be charging onto him. Knowing he had nowhere to run, he crouched down and tried to shield himself with his arms. The crows – as he thought – rammed into him, biting, clawing, and screaming into his ears as they passed him. A scream erupted from the boy's throat as one specific crow landed on his hand and tore open his patched up hand, making blood squirt everywhere.

**_The __Wound.__I__'__m __here, __Black.__You __can __still __turn __back_.**

"But I don't want to!" Black screamed and fell to his knees, as the pain was unbearable. He was crying uncontrollably and was cradling his now bleeding hand, "LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!"

**_You __even __gave __up __on __sleeping, __so__I __wouldn__'__t __be __able __to __talk __to __you_…**

Black kept sobbing on the floor, now lying in a fetal position, "Please, don't… just… just go away… please…"

**_But __Black__… __I __am __You__… __You __are __Me__… __Look_…**

Black then felt a strange tug on his hand. Fearing what he would see, he slowly looked at his hand – and the sight he saw made his whole self tremble with fear.

As the blood was seeping from the wound, it suddenly began bubbling, the bubbles growing bigger, meatier, and in a few moments, the Minotaur suddenly began to claw out of his way from the blood puddle he made. At first, his clawed hands appeared, then shortly after the horrible cow skull. As soon as it surfaced, it set it's glowing crimson eyes onto the boy, who was shaking with panic.

"This… no, this can't be happening… Shit…" Black began to crawl away from the sight, but no matter how far he crawled away, his bleeding hand was like a magnet to the Minotaur. Soon, his nemesis arose from the Gates of Hell apparently Black opened with his own "hand".

The Minotaur hadn't changed at all. It was as menacing as ever as it slowly walked towards his half-sane victim. He knelt down in front of him, amusement glinting in his eyes as he directed them towards Black.

_**Don't like what you see? But I am You, Black…**_

"I fucking don't… Get the hell away from me!" Black hissed and launched a pitiful punch towards the Minotaur's skull with his healthy hand, but instead of the awaiting impact, his fist immediately molded into his head.

"What the hell…?" he let out in a hoarse voice. The Minotaur only chuckled and extended his hand so that he could hold the "Lighter half's" face,

_**Accept me as You are.**_

Another lightning of fear struck into Black, and he kept trembling uncontrollably. Suddenly, like the aforementioned lightning, the Minotaur leaned forward and literally clung onto Black in a vice-grip like hug.

"NO!" Black screamed his lungs out as he got knocked to the ground, the monster literally clawing into him. No matter how desperately he tried to fight him off, he kept melting into him. As he did so, Black felt angrier by every second that has passed.

_**I **__**feel **__**your **__**sorrow, **__**Black! **__**This **__**sorrow**__**… **__**will **__**turn **__**in to **__**rage**__**… **__**and **__**that **__**gives **__**us **__**POWER!**_

"STOP!" Black screamed as he now trashed sideways helplessly, the monster getting into him further and further.

_**You want to avenge what happened to you right?**_

Another scream ripped out from the poor boy's throat, " I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! STOP! LEAVE ME ALONE!" His pained voice shrilled in the air.

"_**Why were we left alone?"and "What did I do?" you asked always. But you stopped thinking about vengeance whenever White was around… And as time passed, you forgot about what they had done to us.**_

His screaming stopped but he still felt the monster sickeningly moving inside his body. He no longer knew where he was – he was falling through the darkness, his only companion was the slick voice of the Minotaur.

_**You like the blood, don't you?**_

"!" _Oh__God__don__'__t__tell__me__he__'__s_… And in that moment, Black landed into something with a huge splash. Something warm and thick. He quickly swam to the surface and the familiar frightening metallic scent immediately stuck to his nose. Coughing, he quickly wiped his eyes and opened them – only to see he was swimming in an ocean of blood, and he was covered in the crimson liquid aswell. He let out a surprised scream and tried to flinch away from the whole ocean but it was impossible.

_**Enough of this nonsense. Accept us! Accept You! Accept me!**_

In that moment, he felt the two clawed hands on his shoulder, and an unimaginably strong force pulling him down, cutting him off from the air supply he had on the surface. No matter how hard he struggled, those arms only lowered him lower, deeper into the darkness.

_**And now - **_

Suddenly Black heard a surprised yell from his demented captor, and the force that was pulling him down was cut. As a result, the ocean of blood spit him out back into the Nothing, landing face down on the solid yet invisible ground.

"Please… stop it… I don't want to see it anymore." he let the tears spill from his eyes freely, "Please… End this… Enough…" He whimpered pitifully against the ground, not wanting to feel anything anymore.

_Hey Black… _

A small child's voice echoed in his mind. He cautiously opened his eyes and gingerly looked up. In front of him stood a small white dove, glowing with pure light. His mouth came slightly agape when he set his eyes on the small creature.

"White…? Is that… you?"

The dove cocked it's head sideways as if contemplating on what to say next.

_Yes __and __no_.

Black let out a curious grunt and curled himself up tightly, as a chill passed him by.

"I don't understand… Where's the Minotaur? Is he going to come back…? " He asked in a pathetic tone, still shaking with fear. His hand, to his surprise was not hurting right now.

The dove slightly opened it's wings as if it tried to balance itself.

_In __a __way__… __I __am __like __the __Minotaur. __And __he __won__'__t __come __back __soon. __Not __until __you __let __him __get __you __again_.

Black blinked, not really understanding what the bird was talking about. Hell, he thought talking birds are nothing but the result of childish fantasies and wants. But to him right now, this single dove was his savior.

_Black__… __everyone __has __a __Minotaur __and __a __Dove __inside __of __them. __It __is __called __balance. __And __if __you __lose __that __balance, __you __will __become __one __of __them. __And __that __could __be __fatal_.

"Fatal?" Black tightened his grip on his leg.

The Dove leaned it's head towards the "sky".

_Minotaur. Wolf. Dragon. Call it whatever you wish. That's a person's dark side. But every dark side has a counterpart. Dove. Cat. Angel… it has many names. If any of this dominates a person, it loses it's partner._

The dove flapped its wings, _Imagine, __if __there __were __people __who __only __saw __the __light. __They __would __be __forever __engulfed __in __their __own __fantasies, __not __having __a __single __care __of __the __Real __World. __Just __like __White, __in __your __case. __I __embody __him __in __You._

Black let out a startled gasp and the bird continued, _White __accepts __himself, __but __that__'__s __not __enough. __His __light __is __too __bright. __He __needs __someone __to __bring __him __to __reality. __He __needs __a __Black. __That __is __You.__You __remind __him __of __the __real __world, __so __he __is __balanced. __However, __you __on __the __other __hand__…_

The Dove set it's golden eyes on the boy, _You __refuse __to __accept __yourself_. _You __hate __yourself __with __undeniable __passion, __and __try __to __hold __onto __White._

"The Minotaur is evil, of course I hate him." Black mumbled and buried his head into the crook of his elbow, "He made me kill people. I can't forgive myself for what I did…"

_True, your dark side killed the people. But your light side is mourning, because deep down, you hate killing, Black. You know this too. You just have to believe in yourself._

"Believe, huh…" Black murmured against his knees. "I want to wake up…"

_If __you __believe __that __you __cannot __be __saved, __then __you __will __not. __However, __if __you __accept __and __believe __in __yourself_… The Dove let the sentence unfinished.

"What should I do?" he whispered.

_Accept the Minotaur. Accept the Dove. If you refuse to fight and go along with them, you won't have consuming you any longer._

"Accept, huh…" he murmured and fell to his side, this time, the invisible arms of Awareness engulfing him.


	3. Instinct

Chapter 3

_Instinct_

Darkness clouded his world as he slowly came back into the so-called reality. Before opening his eyes, he let his natural instincts take over and try to feel the world around himself.

One just can't be cautious enough.

Soft breathing coming from somewhere around his neck.

So, someone is sleeping on him…? If someone is, then that someone is not hostile. The breathing is not violent at all… It doesn't really matter. Black doesn't like physical contact. Maybe if he's fast enough, he can snap the intruder's neck, before it even awakes.

Warmth enveloping his whole body.

He felt that person's arm around his own, it's warmth radiating onto him. And ... was it possible, that there was a blanket wrapped around him? When was the last time he had a real, warm blanket? Somewhere, deep down in the boulevard of his memories, his mind told him that he indeed used to have a bed. It was in the early ages of his, however. Still, Black couldn't remember it all too well.

Soft fabric beneath his head and body.

He must definitely be in a bed. It's so warm and fluffy… such an alien feeling it is to the teenager. Dare he say it… comfortable? Who would be so generous to him? No one was generous to Black. He was feared and hated by all. They only loved White.

White? Who is White…? The name rings a small bell in his mind, which echoes hoarsely.

_White__is__my__little__brother._ his heart tells him.

His name is a color…?

_I__call__him__White__because__he__thinks__his__name__is__White.__Thus,__I__call__myself__Black.__And__this__makes__him__happy_.

Happy?

_Be happy, be happy._

Yeah. That's the bullshit he says to that kid, White. Whenever he says so, White grins that silly grin of his and forgets about everything momentarily.

A small, numb pain in his right hand.

He remembers now. The wound… but was it not ripped open by the crows? Did he even exit the Nothing? Was this another joke by the Minotaur?

Minotaur? The pair of red glowing eyes came into his mind, and his sick snickering still lingering in his ears. His Nightmare. His Darkness. He remembers now.

The urban legend he used to hear at the orphanage. Whenever he did something wrong, the old lady would always yell at him and say, "The Minotaur will come and get you if you don't behave nicely!" and he would always be scared. He tried to be a good boy, always. Then one day he decided that there are just too many mean kids in the orphanage, so why would he be taken away by the monster when there were worse people than him? That's when he decided he'd take his brother and escape-

Wait, orphanage? He was at an orphanage at one point? Didn't they live on the streets since they were born?

His eyes began to prickle. Now was the time he decided he needed to awake before the memories he wanted to kill forever invade his mind. They were just too painful to remember, he knew that. So, he buried it deep down somewhere, hoping they would never resurface. He hated that part of their lives and he never wanted to remember them.

_Accept __the __Minotaur __too, __Black_. The Dove's voice echoed in his mind. Maybe one day, he thought, he will face their past. But not now. He needs to know where he is and who is holding his arm.

As slowly as he could, he opened his eyes and immediately let out a pained groan.

Light.

Everything was white when his vision started to function again, unbearably bright. He quickly shut his eyelids again, but forced them to open again, because the atmosphere felt unfamiliar.

He thrashed his head to the right, to see two more beds and a window on the other side of the room. The sun was peeking inside from outside, bathing the whole area around them in a whitish-yellowish glitter.

He snapped his head to the left to see the small boy sleeping on him peacefully.

White.

_My __little __brother_…

His heart began to beat fast, as he couldn't remember why they were there. Not to mention he didn't recognize this place at all. He began to squirm under White's arm, as he clung onto him stubbornly. He lifted his free hand to gently shake White awake when he felt his hand was slightly heavier than he remembered. He lifted his palm up to his eye level only to notice that it was bandaged up neatly. Not to mention, as he twisted his wrist, his skin was deathly pale, instead of the slightly sunburn brown he always had. How long had he been avoiding the sun?

He blinked and tossed away the invisible question marks in his mind then tried to shake White awake, not caring how the move slightly hurt his injured hand.

"White… hey, buddy, wake up! White!" he whispered, "We need to leave, now!"

White let out a growl that sounded dangerously like an annoyed cat's meow, then looked up at his older brother. As soon as he realized who is he looking at, the boy grinned widely.

"Black! You're awake! Yaaaay!" he screamed and let go of Black's arm, only to tackle the startled older boy back into lying position.

"Welcome back, Black!" he sang into his ear as he hugged his neck tighter. " I gots really worried about you! You slept for two days!"

Black cringed as his little brother's voice got louder by every word, and his ear was not really pleased to be so acquainted with it, "Talk later, we have to leave right now. I don't know what happened, and-"

To his surprise, White let go of his neck sat back on the bed beside him and looked at his older sibling as if he was crazy. Well, maybe he was…

"Black? We are at the hospital. Don'tcha remember? You gots hurt."

Black let his head bob slightly sideways, "What? I can barely remember… Only a blur…" he put his healthy hand on his face, shielding his sight off the light source. "I remember… oh… The Kiddie Kastle… I lost it there and…" he trailed off, and moved his hand away to look at White.

"And then, Fujimura and Sawada brought us here." White chirped and began bouncing on the bed slightly. "We gots lot of food! But I ate them, because you were asleep." Black gave him a blank look.

"Food?" that was the moment when White jumped off the bed.

"Yeah! Food! I will call Sawada to bring you some! Foods are good-goody!" White chirped and sprang towards the exit when Black yelled after him,

"White, wait!" he yelled. He didn't want any of the adults to mock at his weakness he is reduced to now, but he was too late. The moment White was at the threshold, Sawada appeared in the doorway, smiling kindly at him.

"Hey, Black. You slept quite a lot. You feel any better?" he leaned against the doorframe and watched as the older boy's face hardened and he turned to look at the window.

"A bit sore, but okay." he replied quietly. He hates adults, not to mention talking to them. Even so, he doesn't want to be too rude. He did recall they saved his and White's life. So, with a small sigh, he looked at the officer, expecting him to talk more.

"Hmm, thought so." Sawada replied as White hugged his arm now, making Black let out a growl that was unheard by neither of his visitors. "I'm gonna get some food for you. You've been sleeping like a log."

"I am not-" in that moment, to his own surprise, his stomach let out such a loud growl, it even inflicted slight physical pain. With huge eyes, he glanced down at his flat stomach. How the hell could something so small cause such a loud noise?

The young police officer laughed heartily, "Well, I guess your stomach disagrees with you, Black. Let me get some food for you. Do you have any requests?"

Before he could answer, White began bouncing up and down, pulling the officer's hand, "I just gots it! Black loves spicy stuff! And he always wanted to try lobsters too!" he chirped hyperactively, "But he's so kind. He always got me my favourite. Never to-"

"That's enough, White." Black growled, and did not notice or felt the slight blush that formed on his cheeks when White mentioned his secret desire to try out lobsters. Sawada smiled at the little boy's enthusiasm.

"Alright, I understand." trying hard not to grin at Black, he looked up at the still blushing boy, "I'll go and get something warm from the cafeteria then. Do you want anything sweet?"

The aforementioned boy opened his mouth to decline the offer when once again, White thrashed his plans, "Black LOVES white chocolates! He would always steal slices of cake from Sweet G's!"

"White!" Black let out miserably, as Sawada nodded and with a grin, walked out from the room. With a grin, the small boy skipped towards the injured brother's bed. "Why did you tell him those stupid things?"

"Stupid?" White sat on the edge of his bed, and looked at his brother with a confused expression, "But they are true." In response, Black crossed his arms.

"Yeah, but that's none of his business what we like or do. Next time don't spill these out. Remember, no one ever was kind to us aside from Gramps." To his surprise, White's eye had a glint of rage as he replied,

"That's a lie Black! Sawada and Fujimura took great care of me when you dumped me behind!"

Black couldn't bear to look in the eye of his little brother, not to mention his stomach twisted both from emotional and physical pain, "I know." he replied hesitantly, "But-"

"No butts!" White yelled, startling Black, "They gave me what we should have had, Black! Do you know whats that is?" Since he didn't reply, he continued, "Food! Roof! Pencils! Papers! Tables! Beds! And-"

"Basically, they gave you a home." Black hissed irritably "That's why I left you behind. You needed those, and I couldn't give that to you. I was in deep shit when-"

"LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!" White chanted and plugged his ears in with his fingers, making Black stop in mid-sentence. When White saw he's not talking, he continued, "Let me finish my sentence, dummy!"

Black raised an eyebrow, _since __when __can __he __talk __normally? __I __mean, __he __still __makes __mistakes__… __but __his __speech __is __more __fluent__…_

"And I gots toys too!" _There __it __is, __with __the__ "__gots" _ Black out folded his arms and let them rest on top of his legs which were hidden beneath the blanket.

"… "But… I couldn't be happy."

Black blinked. He wasn't really expecting that. He thought White was happy with the two officers, as they both treated him like a… son? They sure did give everything the little brother needed and wanted.

"Why not? You had everything, White. Well, atleast you say so…" he trailed off. White shook his head and grabbed his healthy hand and looked at his darker counterpart with a serious expression.

"I gots no ohana with me." Black blinked again. Was he going nuts or was White saying a word he didn't understand?

"You what?" he blurted out. With a proud grin, White replied,

"Ohana means family! I learnt it from a movie!" he paused for a slight dramatic effect. Fearing something naughty, Black cautiously asked,

"… What kind of movie are you talking about?"

"Where a blue alien dog comes poof from the sky and gets family in an island!" White explains excitedly making Black worry. He has a hunch that Sawada was the perpetrator in showing this movie to his little brother. He will get him back for it later.

"I still don't get your first sentence, buddy." Black scratched his head, which made White sigh, and repeated his sentence, much slower this time,

"I gots no family with me when I am with Sawada and Fujimura." the older boy went mute and only stared at his lighter partner, who held his hand tighter,

"The food don't taste good when Black's not around. I can't steal his part." Black gave him a flat look,

"Whenever I draw, there's no Black to guess my pictures right. Whenever I'm alone, there's no Black to have fun with." he looked at his intertwined hands now.

Unbeknownst to White, Black had a small tear trickling down his cheek as his little brother spoke.

"When there's no Black, there's no White. Fujimura and Sawada are okay, but they cannot replace my screw." Black let out a sigh, _there __he __goes__… __making __me __all __emotional, __and __he __has __to __ruin __it __with __his __limited __vocabulary. __White __will __always __be __White. __The __Goofy._

"Screw?" he asked. White let go of his hand, which he quickly used to wipe his tear away. White looked up and put a hand on Black's chest, almost exactly where his heart was.

"I gots all the screws to your heart. Every one of them." he whispered and withdrew his han, only to point at his own chest, "And you gots the screws that I miss."

Black let out a chuckle and closed his eyes. Really, this boy was something. Talking about screws and hearts. He is still such a kid, and he shouldn't be philosophizing about these stuff. That's his job as his older brother. How old was he anyway? He couldn't even remember his birthday…

"What's so funny?" White asked innocently. Black opened his eyes with a small smile.

"Oh, just a thought that ran through my mind."

"Really? And what was it?" with a glint of mischief in his eyes, Black gestured White to come closer,

"Come here," he whispered, "it's a secret. I'll whisper it into your ear." With an excited squeal, he came closer and Black leaned in to his ear, and made a cone out of his palms,

"There's something I have to do with you as your big brother…" Black whispered. White let out a gasp,

"And what's that?" he whispered back.

With a slight chuckle, he whispered slowly, "Brotherly-head-lock."

White blinked in response, "And what's th- AAGHH!" With his quick reflexes, Black immediately pulled him into a bear-hug, then let his right, and slightly injured hand embrace his little brother's neck, while ruffling his hair up with his healthy left one.

White squealed (either out of pain, or joy, no one knew, but Black assumed he found this funny, as he was careful) in protest, while Black laughed heartily.

"No fair!" White squealed, "CHEATER!" Black only continued laughing,

"That's what you get from me, White!"

"AND YOU STINK! EUGH!" White shrieked, making Black roar with laughter, letting him go in the process and falling back into the pillow, shaking with laughter. Unbeknownst to him, White had a trick up his sleeve too,

"MY TURN!" he yelled and began tickling his older brother, who screamed both in surprise and yet more added laughter.

"Hey! Black, White, behave! I'm here with the food!" an old voice, that neither belonged to the siblings rang in the room. As if White had been struck with a charm, he immediately hoped off from the bed and began bouncing,

"Black! Black! Food is here!" he chirped happily and they both saw Sawada standing with a tray and a plate full of something in his hand.

"I heard it White." Black mumbled, embarrassed, that Sawada saw his carefree side. If he did see it, he didn't really think about it, as the officer's face seemed just natural. Not angry, not bothered, not happy just… well, he was just existing.

As soon as the smell hit his nostrils, his stomach let out a loud and embarrassing growl.

"I've brought you some soup and meat with rice. Unfortunately, the hospital has boring stuff to eat. I'll bring you guys something from the local store. Something nice to fill you guys up." Sawada said it with a smile, while he put the tray to the bedside drawer that Black didn't even notice. To his words, Black replied coldly,

"Thanks for the help so far, but we don't want to waste the police's money."

"Black! That was downright rude!" White simmered him. Black gave him a blank stare, while Sawada let out a small chuckle,

"It's alright, White. Black is not trusting, that's all. But I do recall him tossing you into our arms when he had to go off on his own."

"I had no choice." Black grumbled, to which White whacked him in the head, surprising him and giving him a quizzical look, "What the hell was that for?"

"Don't be rude to those who are kind to you!" White replied, "You are acting just like Stitch!"

Black blinked, "Who…?"

"Stitch! The alien dog! He goes rampage, but when he finds family, he becomes peaceful!" Glad that the spotlight was taken from him, Sawada slipped out of the room to accompany Fujimura to the police station and then to the market. As he was nearing his officer, he could still hear White's explanation of Stitch the alien dog.

"Did Black accept the food?" the elderly man asked as the young officer reached him.

"Well, he didn't throw it to the ground as you thought he would be." he put his hands in his pockets, "He is very stubborn and distrustful. I'm not questioning his nature, but his behavior towards adults is becoming a problem. I'm actually surprised he let the doctor touch him."

Fujimura started towards the exit, and lit his cigarette, "I know. He's been through a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if he continued hating humanity till the very end of his or White's life."

Knowing this was a sensitive subject to the older officer, he tried to pry him open, "What happened to him, Mister Fujimura?" The older man's face grew hard at this question.

"I'm not really sure I should answer that one, Sawada. I'm not… well, I still feel guilty about it."

Now that was a surprise to the newbie. "Well, you know I'm frigid, no matter how gory it is, it won't bother me, and I won't be thinking negative of you. Can I read their profiles atleast? I saw it was kind of locked down and-"

"No." Fujimura stated firmly, as they reached the police car. He opened it and sat in the driver's seat, while Sawada sat next to him. "I don't really want others to look into it. And I also know you won't stop asking for more information."

"You're smart." Sawada grinned.

Fujimura gave him a flat look, "That wasn't nice, mister rookie."

"Ouch."

"Listen," he began, as he also started up the engine, "I'm not going to tell you now, but know this – the way he behaves has a reason behind it. Don't just look at him as a street urchin. It's a miracle he didn't commit suicide. Well, that maybe thanks to White. I respect them both." he said darkly. When he saw Sawada wasn't going to reply to his statement, he continued, "There is a reason, why I never wanted to put them behind iron bars. Why I looked out for them. It's kind of a compensation of mine. And that's why you and I both going to take care of them. I saw how close you became to White."

"I don't like the way this conversation is going." Sawada mumbled.

"As I said, I will tell everything later. Now we've got some work to do." Fujimura ended their conversation and pulled out to the main street.

"And some mouths to feed." his partner added with a grin.


	4. Wounds

Chapter 4

Wounds

Silence fell on the building as the two officers finally left. From the outside, the hospital seemed to be in a miserable state – the paintings chipped off, some of the windows were broken aswell. Despite the cold look it had, this building had the most empathical people in town. The doctors were really expert in their field, and the most extreme cases didn't make them shudder. However, they couldn't help but notice, that lately more and more patients got fatally injured – and not only that, these people were all homeless.

The doctor who took care of Black and White was not only experienced, but he too suffered of injuries in the past. Mister Fukusuke has been in the medical field for almost all of his life, but the two orphans' case was a truly mysterious cup of tea.

The first time he met them, was when Black took White in for a check-up. They were both still very young (White must have been eight or nine, while Black must have been eleven or twelve. Despite the years he had known them, he still couldn't figure out their ages) and were already known for their violent behavior. At that time, White was hurting constantly, and no amount of medicine helped the poor kid. It turned out his appendix had to be taken out. At first, Black refused to let his brother being taken care of (he didn't like the fact that he couldn't be in the same room when the operation was happening), but after talking some sense to him, he finally agreed. After the operation, he mumbled a small thanks, and took off with White.

A year after that incident, they turned up on his threshold once again seeking his help. More likely, White was the one who literally dragged Black to the hospital and no wonder the younger brother was in panic – the older boy's face was covered in blood, two gashes distorted his face – a big, long one that went vertical across and down his eye, and another one on the side of his cheek.

Despite his protests, Fukusuke took care of him immediately. Miraculously, the boy's eyesight was not harmed at all; however no matter how many special ointments he used, he couldn't erase the scars on his face. To that, the boy simply shrugged and said that those scars are his trophy of a hard battle. Knowing he wouldn't answer, the doctor didn't ask what kind of battle it was, and whom it was fought between.

Since then, the boys appeared now and then, turning up only when White fell ill and had to take medications, always accompanied by Genroku, an old man who took them under his wing, trying to make them walk on the correct path.

The avalanche of shocking casualties started a few months ago when Black appeared again, once again accompanied by their self adopted grandfather, who was holding White in his arms, a knife embedded in his belly. The contrast between the old adult and the scarred boy was disturbing. Genroku was in panic, and hurried the doctor, while Black was struck with a disturbing sense of calmness. How the hell did he do it, was a real question to mister Fukusuke. Either he had a rock solid trust in White's survival, or he simply couldn't handle the situation.

A month passed after White's almost fatal wound, when the scarred , older boy appeared with the injury in his hand and right behind him stood the police and the only family he still had remaining, his little brother.

What were these kids doing? Whenever they visited this hospital, they never were simple check-ups…

The old doctor was sitting in the hallway of the hospital, smoking his cigarette, thinking through the life he had seen of the two kid brothers. White was always the smiling, happy one who had fewer injuries, but was sick more often than Black. The older boy, on the other hand was the one who always had some kind of battle injury, but those were always treated by small bandages – courtesy of Genroku – and he never got sick. Or, if he did, he didn't come to find a cure for it in the hospital.

He put the base of the nicotine filled paper tube to his mouth while still in a ponder – how on Earth did Black get that arrow injury? And besides, how come only one arrow was shot? He took a long breath, getting the sweet, forbidden aroma into his system. And the "knife" he removed out of White's belly. That wasn't an everyday knife. It was too long to be a knife, but too short to be a sword.

As he was about to take another breath, a pained scream alerted his attention away from his object of guilty pleasure. Immediately after that, a small familiar voice yelled,

"I will gets you a doctor! Stay here, Black!" The response was a pitiful, painful groan, and the next thing Fukusuke heard was fast footsteps coming his way and White's screaming.

"Doctor! DOCTOR!" Fukusuke was already standing when White reached him, panting from the short run he had. He immediately began pulling the doctor's hand towards the room he just came from. The doctor did not refuse; instead, he fastened his steps into a small jog, to let White keep up with him. The scream he heard earlier sounded indeed very painful. But what could be paining Black?

"What's the matter, White? What's wrong with Black?" he questioned immediately. White looked at him with a panicked face,

"He tried to walk, but then he hurts and falls over! And bleeding!" White squeaked. They arrived to Black's room, only to see him half kneeling on the floor, panting. Blood slowly was flowing on the ground and it seemed like the source was somewhere on his back.

"What the…!" Fukusuke let out as he lowered himself to the boy's level to check him for further injuries. The boy was in too much pain to protest; he kept taking in short breaths and slightly leaned on the doctor for support. The doctor saw that his right thigh was bleeding, and as he looked further, he saw that there was a gash in Black's left back shoulder aswell.

"Oh my God… Black, you must take off your clothes immediately! These wounds must be disinfected!" the doctor said and pulled himself back in order to help the boy who in response hissed back and covered himself with his arms to close the doctor out of his space. His hair fell into his face, making him look more animal than human.

"You are not… taking my clothes off!" he snarled at the doctor and flinched away from him, with a small whimper. When will his hatred towards adults come to a halt for his own good…? For his sake, the doctor took his strict self out and half-yelled at the injured boy.

"Black, listen to reason! If I don't treat those wounds, I might have to amputate your leg! Do you want that to happen?" that seemed to strike a spot. The boy's already white face turned paler and his eyes seemed like they'd pop out anytime. That was also thanks to the lack of fat his face had – he was all skin and bones.

"Ambutate? What's that?" White hiccupped as the scene made him cry a little. Before Black could have said anything the doctor cut him to it,

"Amputate. It means, if he won't let me treat his wounds, I will have to cut his leg off." he replied calmly. Of course, that set the fuse off in White's little mind much to Black's annoyment.

"BLACK YOU IDIOT!" he yelled in his high pitched voice, making his older brother wince, "Take your clothes off and let him help! He has dingy-dangy too, right? It's nothing you haven't seen yet, right?" he didn't let anyone else to say a thing; he immediately jumped to Black and peeled his jacket off, revealing his long sleeved shirt that was drenched in blood.

"White, stop it!"Black hissed as he tried to shun away his brother, but he took off the necklace he had been wearing.

"I'm dressing you down. I don't want a one legged Black!" Black managed to break free from his brother, and glared at the doctor.

"You are lying. My wound is not that bad is it? It's just a bleeding scratch." Fukusuke sighed and no matter how hard White tried, Black didn't let him take another garment off of him.

"Black. I promise I won't do anything else than inspect those wounds." he tried to assure the boy, but the young one let out an animalistic hiss as if he was cornered. Fukusuke didn't know what made this boy so aggressive towards him – he never did hurt him. If he did, it was only because he treated one of his injuries and that was a price to pay when he had battle scars.

"Black!" White tried as he sat next to him, "He's trying to help."

"I know." he replied slowly, not taking his eyes off the man.

"Then do it, Black!" White nagged him. The doctor then came up with an idea,

"Listen, Black. How about you have a shower, and I'll ask the officers to bring you some clothes from your home? While you shower, I'll get you some hospital… clothes and put them onto the counter in the bathroom. I'll get you short sleeved shirts and pants, so you don't have to take them off. Deal?"

The brown haired youth stared at the doctor for a few long moments then he slowly nodded in approval. With the support of White, he slowly got up and followed the elderly man to the public bathroom. He opened it up for them, and watched as the duo limped inside.

He shook his head in disapproval, and headed towards his room to get what he promised, and some disinfectors and bandages.

White hated to have a bath or shower. He didn't know why, but he disliked getting into water. But in summer, he liked to go to the swimming pools. That was fun! But having baths was not…

The small time he had been in the bathroom was spent in silence. He helped Black get undressed as he couldn't put all his weight on one leg, and his palm still throbbed of the arrow wound that was taken care of a few days ago.

Deciding he doesn't want to be in the bathroom, White excused himself and skimped out to the hallway, looking for something sweet for them both. As he was skimping by, he noticed one of the nurses who took care of him when he was stabbed. She was short and chubby, and had very short black hair. White always wondered why is she so fat. He grinned and quickened his pace towards her, who noticed him and waved,

"Hey there, White! How's your little tummy doing?" she asked kindly. White grinned and stopped in front of her,

"I'm okay! Didja know that I can count to ten? Did you?" he began counting with his fingers slowly, when the nurse nodded in approval, with a kind smile, "One... two… three…"

He was about to continue, when an alarmed voice rang in the air, shredding the concentration of the little boy, and making the all the people turn in that direction,

"GET OUT OF THE WAY! NOW! MOVE!" the sound of screeching wheels shrilled the air, followed by a fast rhythmic pair of footsteps. Someone was in a hurry, for sure!

The nurse gently embraced the little boy, and pulled him out of the way, just in time to see the wheeled stretcher storming it's way past them, accompanied by two rushing doctors.

From the arms of the nurse, White stretched his neck in order to see better. As he was looking, he saw a strangely familiar blade sticking out of someone, tainted by a beautiful red liquid. Blood, perhaps?

"The poor old man…" she whispered, "He is the sixth one this week."

"Four… five… six?" White asked, showing his fingers trying to analyze the situation. The nurse held his little hand and nodded,

"Yes. They are all very sick and they have no family at all." she whispered and turned where the stretcher disappeared. White followed her movement, and watched the dark end of the hallway too.

"Can I go?" he suddenly asked, still gazing into the nothingness, startling the young nurse.

"You mean to the person who got taken away?" she asked, "Where's your brother? Won't he be worried?"

"He's gone showering." White replied and tugged on the hand of the nurse, "Can I go? Can I? Can I?"

The nurse shook her head. No children should see a dying man. Especially not one who is about to bleed to death. "No, White. That man is really sick and –"

"But he has no family!" White argued and began pulling the nurse towards the way, despite her will to stay in the exact same spot, "Just like Black and me! Everyone needs someone!"

And with that exclamation, the boy tore his hand away from the nurse's and sprinted off into the direction he wanted to go, ignoring the older woman's calling.

Since he had been in this building a lot, White knew his way around. He knew where the emergency room was, and let his little feet carry him that way. As he was speeding towards his yet unseen destination, he managed to startle a few people who resided in the hallway. First the noisy stretcher, then a kid… It sure was a busy day in the hospital. In a few moments, he arrived to the two winged door and saw it was slightly ajar, and only saw the silhouette of two people. White slowed down, as he neared the entrance. He saw dim light and heard small whispers coming from the inside.

"He ain't gonna make through the night, Jo. He lost a lo' of blood."

Blood? Blood is red. And smells nice.

"Darn it. He's the sixth one this week." the one called Jo let out a sigh, "Too bad. Let's give him a lot of anesthetic. Let him out of his pain."

Anesthetic. Sounds like a bird!

"Alright… "

A few gasps were heard, and then a relax sigh. White edged himself closer to the door. Soon, he heard two pair of shoes walk out, but the relaxed breathing continued. Knowing the coast is clear, he slowly opened the door and peeked inside.

The room he was looking inside was big, and had one big bed in the center, with a huge lamp above it. Around the bed were smaller tables and had lot of metallic stuff on them. He never saw them in use, but he saw they were all bloody.

He stepped inside as he was scanning the room. On the bed was an old man, who had a blanket covering all part of his body, aside from his face which was turned away from White. All the boy could see was the old man's slightly long gray hair. Why was it gray, it was a mystery for White. Will he have gray hair when he's gonna be old? Will he be old?

He tiptoed his way towards the old man. Who was he? White decided to stay away from him a little.

"Are you okay?" White asked from a safe distance. The old stranger did not reply, only let out a gurgling sigh. He blinked, "I'm White. People call me White. So you can call me White. Who are you, mister? I'm here."

He walked up to the man, and decided he will try to identify him. So, to do so, he went around the bed to look at the man's face.

When he finally saw the face of the stranger, he instantly wished he wouldn't have come there.

Black was inside the room again, this time sitting on another bed, as he managed to make a bloody mess out of the old sheets he used. He was wearing a pair of white short pants and shirt. He found it quite comfortable. He looked at his wounded thigh – as soon as he exited the shower, the doctor was waiting for him and hurriedly stitched his wounds up, and also changed the bandage on his palm.

He now glanced at the bedside table which was full with food – a generous gift from the police. Despite his protests and insults, he really was thankful for them deep inside. But he will never admit it publicly. He'd never live it down. He then turned his attention towards the window only to capture the descending sun. Even though he never was the artistic type – he was more into books than into art – he found it quite peaceful. A sigh escaped his lips. Finally, he was washed up, had clean clothes and his wounds were taken care of. All he needed now, was a normal haircut. Despite it being clean now, his hair was slightly darker, than the chestnut brown he used to have. He was about to lie down and have another nap when he heard slow, hesitant footsteps coming towards his room.

White had been away for quite a while now. Not that it was frustrating to him, but he was curious about his whereabouts. His question was immediately answered when he heard the hesitant footsteps and sniffs. His eyes widened when he heard the sniff, and almost cracking his neck in the process he quickly turned to him,

"White?" he whispered and turned his whole body to him, and gestured him to sit next to him, "What's the matter? White?"

White was a mess. His eyes were red, and tried to dry his snot with his hand, letting out whimpering sounds as he proceeded towards his big brother, whose eyes were big with concern.

The lighter half of his sat down next to him and immediately buried his face into his chest, rubbing his eyes, still not forming coherent words. Now increasingly concerned, Black wrapped his arms around him, waiting for him to calm down a little. What made him so upset?

The next few minutes consisted of White's heartbreaking cry, and Black's confused silence. Despite him being getting slightly impatient, he still waited for his little brother to tell him what made him sad.

With a sniff, he gently pried himself slightly away from Black only to look into his worried brown eyes.

"Tell me White. What happened?" he asked in a whisper. Another sniff was his reply.

"Black?"

He felt the urge to reply a "what?" but swallowed it and instead let out a questioning "Hmm?"

"Gramps…" he hiccupped and Black drew in a sharp breath, "He…died."

The room was calm and spacious, only the two orphaned children were inside, but despite that, Black felt like the whole room was about to choke the remaining air out his lungs, and tear his still beating heart out. White began to cry more heavily as he collapsed onto him, and he automatically rubbed soothing circles on his back, but his eyes were wide and kept them on the wall in front of him.

Only one sentence kept repeating in his mind: This cannot be true, cannot be true…


	5. His Name Is Black

Chapter 5.

His Name Is Black

The Sun was now hidden behind the concrete walls of the houses that surrounded the old hospital building. As it's rays hit the back of the houses and reflected back upon, the rays created a beautiful crimson color, and as a velvet veil, it lingered above and in the city, creating a calming atmosphere. Despite the warm life it created, it couldn't warm up two quivering and frightened hearts, which were engulfed in sorrow. Behind the cold glass of the hospital window, which was slightly dirty due to the lack of care it received, were two boys sitting on the edge of a bed.

They were the Cat brothers, as they were called on the street. The young, black haired one was snuggling up to his older counterpart and it seemed like he cried himself into a restless slumber. He was dressed in a plain yellow shirt, with a blue cardigan, to keep the warmth in. He wore a simple pair of slightly long, ragged jeans, and a pair of white shoes. He was clutching onto his big brother as he slept – sometimes his slumber was disturbed by his own hiccups, but those were never big enough to wake himself up.

Black, who just had his wash-up, and clean clothes on - which were now wet with White's tears - was still in shock after what he heard from his little brother. Aside from White, there was only Gramps he considered as "family". His arms were loosely around White's limp, fragile form, as he was now leaning against the wall, his gaze firmly kept on the ceiling.

It's not like he believed Gramps was immortal. He knew of death, ever since the beginning of his life. He had to learn about it too soon.

He blinked as he felt like his eyes were on fire.

When did Gramps really enter their lives? Maybe, ever since they escaped. They were still very young, and were starting to live the life of the streets. Even though his eyes were wide with awareness, his mind slipped into the small lake of memories he never really wished to see.

_The clouds above Treasure Town are tinted in the dark shades of gray. _

_The roar of a thunder rings in the air._

_The sound of two small pair of feet slapping against concrete echoes in the darkness of the city. Two young and slender boys are running in an alleyway, holding hands. They are wearing small backpacks, seemingly full. The taller one of them has several bruises among his face and neck, while the small one seems like he had been crying. They both are wearing long sleeved shirts and pants, as the weather is slightly cold._

_Pant. Pant. Pant._

_They are both drenched in sweat as they were running for quite a while and they are not really used to doing this for an hour. The older boy kept looking behind his shoulder, hoping he got rid of their pursuers. As he saw none, he decided it's time they both had a break now. His little brother has been exhausted, and he's not in much better shape either. They reached the foot of a bridge and they leaned against the wall, which was the pillar of the bridge. As his little brother kept taking in sharp breaths, he looked around. Above them was the bridge, so they were sheltered. As he looked to the sides, he saw the river running. So they were quite secluded. And then, his eyes fell on an abandoned car (who leaves a car under the bridge…?). He gently tugged on the small boy's arm, and motioned for him to follow. Hiccupping, the younger brother followed and obediently sat inside the car, when his older brother opened it up for him. The little one pulled off his backpack and gave it to his brother, who put their packs in the backseats. When he was done, he sat at the other side of the car and let out a sigh of exhaustion. He leaned against the old steering wheel and relaxed his muscles. They will not be able to find them here._

"_Bwack?" the small voice of his little brother rang in his ears. Without looking up, he made a grunt as a sign, he was listening._

"_Whats a gonna happen now?" he was still so young, his little brother. He was only seven, and he, Black was ten. He had not a slightest clue what to do. White, his brother couldn't speak properly, couldn't dress himself up, nor read. He couldn't do anything on his own. Black had to be there, so White could live. But Black himself was a child. How was he going to make the both of them live? The hiccupping of his sibling made him turn his head and eye him. He was crying again, but not as much as he was at the orphanage. Just small stream of tears instead of the rivers he used to weep. Now that's a start._

"_We're going to live." Was his only reply to his younger counterpart. The mentioned younger one blinked softly,_

"_Without a mom and dad?"_

"_Without them."_

"_Whuz gonna feed us?" White asked in a small, cracked tone._

"_I will." The ten-year-old sibling replied. But how, he didn't have a clue._

"_But Bwack," the younger one tried to argue, while trying to keep his snot in his nose at the same time, causing him to sniff every second. That made Black lean back to reach for his backpack, "we gots food and ever- ything in the orange-nage. Why did us run away?"_

_Black fished out a pack of paper tissues. He took out one handkerchief, and put it to White's face, helping him blow his nose, "First things first. The correct way to say it is 'We got food and everything' and that was not an orange-nage. It was an orphanage. And 'we' ran away, not 'us'." He corrected him gently, with pauses as White kept blowing his nose. "And, we ran away because we both got hurt a lot by the other children and adults."_

_At this, his younger brother had huge, watery eyes, while Black discarded the used tissue through the opened car window. "But Bwack. The Mino-taur will punish them!"_

_Black snorted, "There's no minotaur, White." His young, high pitched voice was dripped in sourness. "That is just a fairytale."_

_They sat in silence for a while, then White struck up another conversation, _

"_Bwack?"_

"_Yeah?" he was looking through the window, watching their surroundings._

"_I'm hungry." White let out embarrassedly. Black blinked. Darn it! He didn't think this through. He did steal at the table today, but… that's only enough for one night. He turned to his backpack again, and started looking it through._

"_I stole a sandwich. Will that be enough, White?" Even though he couldn't see it, he knew his brother gave him a nod._

"_But… If Bwack hungry?" White asked when his older brother gave him the humble sandwich he stole. The ten-year-old gave him a fake reassuring smile,_

"_I'm not hungry. While you eat, I'll go and look around, okay? Don't leave the car!" To that, the smaller boy gasped, his mouth full of bread,_

"_Don't weave me, Bwack!" he pled, his eyes still watery. This time, he gave White an honest, encouraging smile and patted his head,_

"_Just for a few minutes, White." Seeing, he was starting to cry again, he moved towards him and lightly and awkwardly hugged the only remaining of his family, "Hey, everything's gonna be okay." He whispered into his ear, "Be happy, be happy, remember?"_

"_Be heppy, be heppy." White tried to mimic him. To that, Black grinned, and let him go, so he could exit the car. As he was standing outside, he peeked in through the window of the car's door._

"_Yeah. We'll be fine. Eat up, and I'll be back, okay?" White nodded in reply and returned to his late dinner._

_Black looked around, and when he decided which way he should go, he sprinted in that direction._

_As he followed the path he decided, he soon found himself in a crowded street. It was almost nine o'clock in the evening, so Black assumed people were either going home, or they were just going to somewhere to spend the remaining of the evening._

_He knew he had to steal in order to maintain a life on the streets. He needed to start learning how to, as they needed something to eat tomorrow aswell. But… how? He never really did steal from people._

_Stealing at the orphanage was another cup of tea. There was no real risk in that. But on the streets? What if he get caught by the police? What will happen to White? What will happen to himself?_

_He looked around and tried to analyze the people around him. He only wanted to steal from people who looked rich. Stealing from poor people; that was something he wouldn't allow himself to do. That's when he noticed a woman in a furry coat, and had many, many jewelries on her neck, hands and everywhere. Swallowing in fear, he forced himself to approach the woman. He didn't really want to steal, it was bad… but when he thought about tomorrow, all he could imagine is his crying brother and his empty stomach. As he closed on, he noticed she was carrying a small bag. If he had a knife, he'd be able to cut it simply. To his beginner's luck, the woman was chatting on a small cell phone (by the looks of it, that too looked very expensive) so she was distracted. This was his chance, but his heart was squirming in fear._

_With his own, rapid heartbeat banging in his ears, his throat clenched so much, he barely could breathe, he slowly extended his slim arm. All he could see was the small bag, and the furs of the coat. He was still too far away, so he had to quicken his steps so he could reach for it. His body was very close to the woman's now, and his hand was now millimeters of the surface of the bag. The moment he felt the bag's cold leather against the flesh of fingertips, he felt like a zap of lightning ran down his spine. He touched it! He touched someone else's property! His heartbeat was extremely fast, his breaths came in short, he was sweating, and his limbs were trembling. His adrenaline level was at it's peek. He didn't want to do this. He doesn't want to steal. He was clueless about what to do now. He couldn't open it without getting seen! It was only an easy zipper, but… right now, it seemed like the most dangerous lock in the world. As his fingers were nearing the zipper, he suddenly felt a powerful tug at the collar of his shirt, and he was yanked backwards. In his surprise and fear, he let out a high pitched squeak and closed his eyes, trembling. He got caught the first try he wanted to survive on the street._

"_Well, well, well, a thief, I presume?" came a snicker from above. Black assumed he was caught by a police officer and was now towering above him, while he is holding him by the collar of his shirt._

"_I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Black squealed, his eyes still shut, and his hands curled in front of his chest in defense, "I'll never do it again! Never ever! Just please, let me go!"_

"_Let you go? Well, having little mice like you is what destroys our beloved city. I'm afraid you have to be punished." Black then felt he was yanked to the side, making him open his eyes in surprise and fright again. White! White must be waiting for him. He must get out of here! People were looking at them, as he was dragged into an alleyway. He still couldn't see his captor, as he was dragged behind him. Then, suddenly he got thrown face-first into a wall, but instead of the awaiting impact, he quickly used his arms to steady himself, so he wouldn't bump into it. With his back facing his captor he trembled and continued his plea,_

"_Please, please, let me go I promise I-"_

_Once again, he was yanked again, this time he was turned to face his captor. But the moment he could look into the adult's eyes, he felt an unbelievable strong force hit him across his round cheek, making him yelp and tumble onto the ground. Black winced and kept both of his hands on his injured cheek, and still continued his plea,_

"_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please! I don't wanna steal again, I just… just had to because-" he then felt a sharp, blasting pain in his side, the force sending him flying into the hard surface of a nearby trash. The kick he received right below is ribcage was so strong he could only take breaths in shallow, letting out a wheezing sound as he did so. He then felt a lump of blood fighting it's way in his throat, making him spit it out in order to not choke on it. Trembling in fear, he now curled up and whimpered, hoping the man would stop hitting him. He heard hard footsteps approaching him and each of them made him jolt with fear._

"_You started a sentence. It is impolite to let it go unfinished." Came the smooth voice of the man. Black let out a cough, as more blood was seeping into his mouth. "And look at me, if you want to talk. Why should I spare you?"_

_As a naïve kid as he was back then, Black slowly turned to the source of the voice, looking up at the man, who tortured him. With all the strength he could muster, he replied in a squeaky voice,_

"_I… have… ittle… little brother… I have to… take… care of him…" he managed to say, then he broke into a chain of coughs. Since he was busy coughing, he couldn't see the wicked smile the man had on his face,_

"_Oh, so you are not alone, eh? More of you scums are breathing in this city… Maybe he'll be more fun to … kill the time with. If you know what I mean." At this, Black's eyes widened. What a fool he was! How could he think he'd be spared if he told him the truth? With desperation in his eyes, he looked at the man who was now crouching down to his level. He couldn't judge his age by his face, but he looked approximately 30-40 years old. He had a minimal facial hair, and he had a wicked grin on his face. His eyes were dark, but shone with excitement. Black could also smell the alcohol radiating from his body. His hair was also as dark as the midnight sky._

"_You see, I hate the trash-folk like you are." He roughly grabbed the boy's face, who let out a gasp of pain, "First, you steal. Then you steal more. Then, the thirst for more is so unquenchable, you end up killing even for more. You are to be squished like a bug, before you become an ugly moth." Once again, Black's heartbeat matched with the beat of a cornered animal. He encircled his tiny hands against his captor's palm and his eyes were now started to sting more with tears,_

"_Please m-mister! I promise I won't do it again! Please!" he whimpered, and flinched when the man's face distorted with disgust and he raised his other hand again,_

"_Shut the fuck up, you little-"_

_WHACK!_

_There was a sickening sound of a heavy object smashing into a head, and Black's tormentor froze. Moments later, Black felt the grip loosen around his shirt, and his foe fell to the ground as if it was a sack of potatoes. Black too, felt his legs give away, and he slid to the ground. Still trembling from the events, the little boy looked up at his savior. _

_It was an old man, whose hair was beginning to grow white. Even though his face was not aggressive at all, his presence radiated with anger. He was holding a baseball bat in his hands. He looked at the frightened young buy with a stern gaze._

"_Lifting a hand against children is the biggest sin a mortal could commit. " he said in a raspy voice, and began to walk towards Black. "I simply cannot overlook what happened here. I saw you trying to steal, boy. You didn't seem very experienced." He crouched down to the whimpering boy, who was following him with his gaze. The old man gently held his face, checking for more injuries. The boy winced when he held the spot where he was slapped. It was getting red and swollen._

"_Come now, boy, we have to move. This man will wake up soon. Can you walk?" he asked him softly, and as gently as he could, he helped the injured boy up._

"_Yeah, I can… my side hurts like hell though." He winced, as he let the old man guide him._

"_Where do you live, boy? Your parents must be worried by now. Let me escort you home." The old man offered. Black lightly shook his head as he leaned against the old man for support, but still leading him towards their newfound "home"._

"_We don't have any parents anymore…" Black whispered. To that, the old man turned his face to the boy, surprised._

"_We, you say?"_

_With a pained groan, he kept walking, "I have a little brother…" he whispered, "We've managed to escape from the orphanage. Now we are hiding."_

_The old man shook his head in disapproval, but helped the boy nonetheless. "Why did you two escape? Boy, have you really thought this through? The orphanage gave you shelter and-"_

_Black viciously turned towards his savior, "My brother and I got bullied a –ugh! – lot! He cried all the time and because of that he has many problems." And with that, Black's leg decided to end his duty. The young boy's body jerked, then was about to fall down, but his savior caught him the last moment. The man had a look of pity and sorrow in his still healthy eye, as the other, right one was white. He was half-blind._

"_You're tired and wounded. Let me carry you, young lad. Or should I say… Takeru? Or are you Shinji?" _

_Black felt like he got slapped again. His eyes were full of plea and sorrow when he looked up at the old man, "I'm Takeru. But we call each other Black and White when we are alone, thus people can't find us. I'm Black. They… they are already looking for us? Please, don't give us out!" He began to plea again, "White and I were suffering there. I… I want to take care of White, and protect him! Now that we don't have parents, I must do so!"_

_The old man nodded tiredly, "Takeru. What you want to do is understandable, but not acceptable. You both still are children and -"_

"_I don't care!" Black yelled, tears in his eyes, "People call us crazy! Weird! Because we are not like them! We are better off without those people!"_

_The old man let out a tired sigh, "Takeru, listen to reason. You cannot protect Shinji. Look at you. You are-"_

"_Then I will grow strong." Black replied sternly. "I will protect White. I'm the only one he has."_

_The old man watched the young boy, who's soul had the blazing flames of a true warrior. After a while, he silently asked, "And where did you find shelter?"_

_Black looked at the bridge, which was a few corners away from them, "Right beneath that bridge, in the abandoned car."_

_The old man nodded, and gathered the small, slim boy in his arms, who let out a yelp of surprise, but didn't protest. As he was passing people by, some of the homeless people greeted the old man. Black was silent all the time, he just watched the sky from the old and fragile arms of an old man who took pity on him. Was he going to help? Will he give out their identity? Will he betray them? As he was busy worrying about this man, a certain small conversation perked his little interest up,_

"_Good evenin' Genroku! You up for a drink?" a raspy voice asked. The holder of Black replied calmly,_

"_I think I'm going to skip tonight's' rounds, Zip. I've got some things to do." Black felt them stopping, so he turned his face away from his holder, only to look into another old man, with a friendly smile on his face. _

"_Ah, I see. You have adopted yourself grandson?"_

_Black's eyes widened, and was about to open his mouth to protest, when Genroku's voice boomed behind him, "Not just one. I've got two. We're heading for my other kid." Genroku's friend smiled and patted the now shocked boy on the head,_

"_I see. Hey there, lad! Gen's the perfect grandpa. He's kind and caring, unlike most of us, hehe. Make sure you show us your little brother too! What's your name, kiddo?"_

_Black couldn't say anything. His throat was full of something, that was choking him, and his eyes started to sting again, but he still kept looking at the man with wide eyes._

"_His name is Black." Genroku replied instead of the youngster. The other man nodded and stroked the top of the brown haired boy's head._

"_I see. Take care of each other guys!"_

_Black still wore the expression of sheer surprise, making Zip grin, and stand aside, so they could proceed._

_They started to move on again, and the boy was lost in the words Genroku said just moments ago. No words were coming to his mind, as to speak them loud. Instead, he turned his gaze back to the sky, making himself comfortable in Genroku's arms again, who nudged him._

"_Hey, you okay there, Black? Are you in pain?"_

"_No…" A small tear slid down and disappeared in his messy lightbrown hair and nudged himself closer to Gen. For the first time that night, he had a calm smile on his face and replied, "I'm fine now, Gramps."_

_Gen, that is, Gramps, smiled down at Black warmly and nodded._

By the end of his own flashback, Black was marred with tears. He hated crying. That was the last time he cried, when they escaped from the orphanage. Then, he cried again, when there was the crisis with White.

How ironic, Black thought. He met Gramps with tears in his eyes. And now, he was in tears again, mourning his sudden death. He embraced White tightly again – who in response whined in his sleep – and softly spoke into the air,

"Rest in peace, Gramps." He rested his chin ontop of White's messy black hair, and let his tears freely flow from his eyes, to his scar, then into his own brother's hair.

Sawada was back in the police station, because Fujimura went to do his own business – even though he kept it a secret, Fujimura did let him know, that he will need Sawada's help in something, and it concerns with this business he is going to do now.

All in all, they are going to be super busy.

Even though he trusted his boss, it still bothered him to no end that he wouldn't let any information out on the Cats – or Black and White as everyone called them. He didn't want to betray his boss and walk in and snatch the profiles. He'd be fired in that moment Fujimura would hear it.

He was busy making himself coffee, when he heard two of his older colleagues having a conversation. Sawada was standing right in front of the coffee machine.

"… so no real business these days, I tell you." One of them said. He was slightly older than Fujimura. The machine let out an "eeeeeer" sound.

"Yeah. It's all pickpocketing, stealing, and even the beat ups stopped. I heard Black got finally taken away." A paper cup popped out, and the machine prepared the dark liquid,

"I heard he was almost taken to mental hospital. What happened?" said the younger one of the two. The machine began spitting out coffee.

"Haven't you heard? It's a rumor, but Fujimura keeps the profile locked away. But I was there when the report was made." His tone gone lower to a whisper. Now the milk began to flow.

"He and White are the only survivors of the horrible Midnight Massacre."

Ding!


	6. Acceptance

Chapter 6.

Acceptance

The Sun was now barely visible on the endless horizon when Mister Fujimura exited an office, a content yet placid expression plastered on his face. As he walked out of the building, he flipped his cell phone open, and pressed one button, that was set to speed dial his partner. As he put his phone to his ear, he used his other to open his car. First, he set his bag next to the driver seat then he himself sat in, still waiting for Sawada to answer the phone. He closed the door and started the car, and in that moment, his partner's slightly curious sound rang in Fujimura's ear.

"Yes, Fujimura?" he asked cautiously.

"I'm done here on my end, and heading to the station now." He slowly made his way out of the parking lot. It was going quite slowly, because a couple of youngsters were goofing around. But as soon as they saw the officer's car, they immediately decided to continue the fun somewhere else, "Did something happen while I was out? I have a small favor to ask."

At first, Sawada seemed hesitant, but finally decided to reply, "I did hear something that I want to ask you about, but only when we're alone. What do you want me to do?"

That was interesting. What did Sawada hear, to make him so nervous?

"Alright, I'll see if I can answer your question. And about my request: help me pack my belongings. I'm moving to another city. Treasure Town is officially dead, as a town."

As he sped out of the parking lot, he scared a small flock of doves which made them take off the ground, like a living curtain of feathers.

Black decided to not continue the mourning in the hospital room. It wouldn't do any of them good. Gramps is gone, and no amount of tears will bring him back. So, as cautiously as he could, he let White lay on his temporarily owned bed, and decided to take a small walk. As he passed a random mirror in the corridor, he examined himself. He looked slim, his hair was darkbrown, yet not as dark as White's, but definitely longer. He cocked his head sideways. Heck, he looked slightly better with longer hair! Whenever he cut it himself, it always seemed like the locks of hairs were torn out instead of cut. Now all the damage he cause to his hair was now fixed, by letting it grow longer.

As he studied himself further, he couldn't help, but notice, that he seemed like a ghost – his complexion was completely white, and his eyes were red from the small weep he let himself have a few minutes ago. He lifted his injured hand and put his finger to the scar that went across his right eye – his symbol of "growing up", as he put. To him, this was more than a line that distorted his face. His finger then traveled to the scar that was on the side of his face. Well, atleast those scars weren't lonely. They always came in pairs…

He then let his hand fall to his side and eyed the bandages which were now clean. Sheesh, he hated to be wounded, or to be injured at all. With a shrug, he continued his walk. He wanted to put his hands in the pocket of the pants he got, but they didn't have one. As he passed a few patients, they either didn't know who he is, or if they did, they always were a 2 meters of radius away from him.

That made him grin a little. He was no longer insane. Or maybe he was, but only to a healthy limit.

"Black…?" Came a quivery voice from a room. He immediately stopped and looked to his side, and he saw another patient's room. In the room, a particularly familiar dark haired boy was sitting in one of the beds, and was now gaping with surprise at the scarred boy. He too was wrapped up in bandages.

Black let out a raspberry and casually walked inside and he addressed the boy in a mocking tone, "Well, if it isn't one of the Dusk and Dawn brothers. Which one are you?" as he walked inside, he noticed that his brother was not in any of the beds. In fact, they were empty. The dark haired boy's eyes narrowed as the self-proclaimed-owner of Treasure Town walked in, with a sadistic smile on his face.

"I'm Dusk." Dusk spat, and looked at Black angrily, "And I don't see why are you acting so all high and mighty. We're all in deep shit!" Black raised an eyebrow. He stopped at the foot of Dusk's bed, and put his healthy left hand to his hip casually.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Dusk?" he asked in a bored tone.

As Dusk replied, his voice shook, "My brother. Those bastards killed my brother when we were trying to help an old man." He seethed. Even though Black was shocked inside, his face was still wearing his stoic mask. Since he didn't reply, Dusk threw a tantrum, pounding his fists against the hospital blanket,

"What! Do you feel nothing? Black, we are being MURDERED!" Black slightly leaned back as in an attempt to lower the volume of Dusk's shouting, "They killed the old man and I could barely escape either! Those killing machines! They've returned and they are sweeping the streets!"

Black felt like he was punched in the gut. Old man…? Was Gramps… murdered? For a fragment of second, panic shone in his eyes, but he quickly closed them.

"Dusk, you guys warned us about those killing machines. You knew how strong they are. Why didn't you leave the city then?" He looked back to the boy, expecting an answer. Dusk gritted his teeth and snarled back,

"We were tired of moving from city to city! We wanted to settle down once! And what do we find in Treasure Town? A nice home which is ruled by a big, worthless bully!" to that, Black's eyes narrowed, but Dusk didn't see that, so he continued, "I swear, I don't know why White is with you. Look at you! You claim this city as yours. Protect us, damn it! It is your responsibility! Oh, wait, you are hiding in the hospital! It seems like you are not much of a boss afterall!"

Black was making a move to go around Dusk's bed, and give him a life's lesson, but when he wanted to move his legs fast, the arrow wound on his thigh immediately began to throb painfully. As a result, he let out a hiss and had to sit down for support. Dusk didn't notice the bandages on Black's body when he came in, but now he saw them and understood the reason of his weakness. He let out a surprised gasp,

"Black… you… you're wounded?" he let out.

"No shit, Sherlock." Black growled, clutching his thigh and gritting his teeth, both in anger and pain, "If it wasn't for this wound, I'd have rearranged your face."

Dusk ignored the bitter response and asked instead, "What happened…? Why are you in a hospi- I mean, I bet because of the wounds, but-"

"I killed two of those guys." Black replied without looking into the boy's eyes. "And don't ask me about the details."

Dusk's mouth hung open as he looked at the scarred boy, who in response now looked at him,

"And close your mouth. I don't want to see the contents of your stomach." To that, Dusk immediately shut his mouth. The silence was not long lived, however,

"How's White doing?" he asked quietly.

Black turned his attention to his knees, "He's fine. We'll recover in a few days and continue to run out these invaders."

Dusk shook his head, "That's impossible. As I said, they are sweeping the streets, Black. They are killing homeless and orphaned, wandering children."

Black's eyes widened and refused to look at the boy, "What are you saying?"

Dusk himself lowered his gaze, "Yeah. They won't hurt you in the hospital. But the moment they release you, these… aliens will find you and make sure you are disposed of. My brother…" he started hiccupping, and clenched his fists as tears started to flow, "My brother was thrown into the river, after being stabbed several times. I was only saved because I hid myself… The ambulance took the old man away and… and I hitched a ride ontop of the car…"

Black listened in silence. How? How are they going to survive and grow up? If he dies, White dies too. And if White dies… Why should he live? Dusk's voice once again sounded in his ears,

"So what are you going to do then? The moment you step outside, you are dead! And so is White! You'll be wiped out of existence as if you never were! You'll become nothing!"

Black closed his eyes and stood up wobbly and began marching out of the room,

"People don't die so easy." And with that, he disappeared from Dusk's view. The boy was left there, confused by the older, scarred boy's words.

"Why are you moving away?" Sawada asked as he was now driving the officer's car towards the hospital. "I thought you loved Treasure Town." He had to stop, because they got a red light.

Fujimura huffed before he replied, "In past tense, Sawada. This town is changing. It's no longer the town I used to know, believe me. My work here is done." They began moving again.

"Mister Fujimura…" he blinked and looked at his older partner for a moment, "Can… Can I go with you? I've learned a lot from you." That surprised the old Fujimura. He looked at the blond officer, who kept his eyes on the road,

"Are you serious, Sawada? This town is pretty rough, you can have your action here."

"Nah," they turned to another road, "It wouldn't be the same without you. I've grown to like teasing you non-stop." He grinned as he answered. "Besides," he continued "You still have a lot to teach me, and I like the way you are passing it on. I couldn't ask for a better teacher."

Fujimura thought about it for a short time. When he made up his mind, he replied, "Well, if you think this old man can teach you a trick or two then I'd be happy to have you on board. You sure you ready about this?"

"Absolutely."

"Then, when we're done here, let's return to the station, so we can pack your stuff too. I have an apartment in the town we are going to serve from now on."

That surprised the young man, "You've already made arrangements?"

Fujimura nodded, "Yes. Ever since White's incident, I made preparations and I have a few contacts in the police station there. They will be happy when I tell them I bring an extra officer with me. They are quite low on youngsters you see."

Sawada grinned, and for a few minutes they drove in silence. Then Sawada became curious once again, "And when are we leaving?"

Fujimura was silent for a few moments. As they carried on, they sometimes saw some abnormally tall people walking like as if they were mechanized. They both knew who they were, but they were powerless against them. It was then, Fujimura replied with a mysterious tone,

"The moment when Black and White are ready to leave aswell."

Sawada immediately turned towards his mentor, "What do the siblings have to do with this?"

The old man remained mysterious, "When we get to the hospital, don't get out of the car immediately. I have to tell you something, when we are not moving."

When Black returned to his temporary room, he saw that White was still sleeping, hugging his pillow. As he advanced towards the bed, his mind swirled with questions.

If he looked at their situation, he saw that they had the support of the police, but that didn't worth much now, did it? He sat down on the edge of the bed and held his face in his hands.

Dusk wouldn't have a reason to lie. So they are hunting the street people. But why? What did they do? He killed two of their workers, they should be angry at him, not at the entire streetfolk.

His eyebrows slid closer to each other. From what the boy said, Black knew that there were more of these aliens. So if he was busy fighting with one (he'd doubt he could take one down, and he didn't want to face the Minotaur once again), the other one – or two – could held him down and… he'd be sliced to bits. What now…? And White? He glanced at his sleeping brother. He was sleeping peacefully now, taking slow and shallow breaths of relaxation.

What will happen with him? He's not a real fighter… Sure, he can handle a kid, but an adult? Against a killing machine? That's just like David going against Goliath. No chance…

He thought a little. His wounds will take approximately a week or two to heal. So, he has fourteen days to ponder on their next move. They must leave this city. But then what…? Those aliens didn't speak their language. How could he tell them, that they don't want to do anything with the town and just leave peacefully? Or, should he deliberately cut himself, so they can stay at the hospital more? There's no way he is returning to the orphanage with White. That's worse than living on the streets. Besides, from what he heard, the orphanage will be demolished aswell.

"Bl-" there was a cute yawn, "Black?"

Black turned to look at White, with a small smile. His younger brother was half sitting position, and rubbing his left eye. He had a very bad bed hair aswell.

"Hey. You feeling any better?" Black cradled his chin with his palm, while his other injured hand rested on his bare knee.

White let out a small, high pitched yawn and stretched, "A little bit. What day is it?"

Black tilted his head sideways, "Friay." He guessed in a sing-song tone. White shook his head.

"The number of the day."

Black grinned, "That is called the date, silly."

White pouted when Black said he was silly, but ignored him, "Tell me! The date! Tell me! Tell me, tell me!"

"Alright, alright. Why do you want to know so much?" he sighed, but stood up nonetheless. There was a calendar hung up next to the entrance. This was a calendar that had a moveable plastic square in it. Every morning, when the nurse came in for a normal check-up for the room, she always moved the plastic rectangular to the correct place.

"It's the twentieth of November. Why are you-" Black stopped in middle sentence. Somehow, this date was strangely… strange for him.

Far behind him, White quietly spoke, "Just asking. I thought my birthday's today." Black shook his head,

"Yours is on the sixth of March. That's a bit… far." Black replied quietly aswell.

"And yours?" White asked. As Black was about to reply something, a familiar old voice answered instead,

"It's on today. He just turned fifteen." The voice soon got embodied by Fujimura who stepped on the threshold much to Black's surprise. The old officer was looking at him with a peaceful, friendly smile. Sawada appeared behind him with a smile too.

"You are fifteen already? Congrats, kid!" White yelled the young officer's name happily, and bounced off the bed to meet him eagerly, while Black's eyes now narrowed.

"How do you know the date of my birthday?" Black hissed in a chilly tone. White bumped into Sawada happily and glomped him who in return patted his head. Fujimura turned serious,

"I know you, Black. Ever since you were a little toddler." Black kept glaring at the officer, who ignored the invisible knives which were thrown at him. "We need to talk about something serious. White, you should listen too." He said and White let go of the officer whom he was hugging.

"What's da matter, Fujimura?" White asked and walked up beside Black. The officer motioned them to sit down,

"What I'm about to offer is pretty serious. You both should think about it." Black wasn't easily convinced.

"I'm sure we won't be taking up any offer you make." He replied coldly. White gasped in protest.

"Black. I'm going to be blunt now." Fujimura sighed, "Either you take our helping hand, or you both die. You know this too. So does White. Listen to us for your own good."

That seemed to strike a point in Black. Growling in defeat, he turned away from their visitors to sit on the bed he owned temporarily. White followed his actions and sat down beside him. The officers sat down to the bed next to them, so they were all face to face.

Black crossed his arms, and Fujimura began his speech with a tensed sigh,

"As you two may know, Treasure Town is going through a mad change. A change neither of us can influence anymore. This town is being destroyed."

"We know that." Black spat. White elbowed him.

"And I am sure you also have heard that people who are without a home and wander on the streets disappear without a trace. If you two get out of the hospital, you may suffer the same fate."

"They are killed." Black corrected him and looked away, "Just like… Gramps."

Fujimura gave him a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry for your loss, Black. Truly. "Black grunted in response and returned his gaze to the officer.

"Carry on."

Slightly surprised by Black's calmness, he continued, "You can't live your life in Treasure Town anymore. You must leave. But none of the other cities or towns will tolerate your behavior and sooner or later, you'd end up in an orphanage again. Or, in your case, Black, you'd end up in jail, since you are fifteen now."

White let out a gasp, "That big building with evil people?"

"Yeah." Black answered him. And darn it, Fujimura was right… "So what do you want to offer to us then?"

Sawada looked at his partner, who turned around and opened his suitcase. He fished out a few papers and held them in his hands,

"I know this is a hard decision. But…" the officer trailed off, a moment unsure of how to continue. "…but I thought it all over and I'm more than willing to help you two out, in fact I'd be glad if I could. And I'm not the only one. Sawada and I discussed this, and he'd be happy to help too."

Black confusedly looked between the two officers. What on earth were they planning?

"This is starting to sound suspicious…" Black muttered. White snorted,

"I trust them! They took care of me!" Black cringed at that, and waited for Fujimura to continue. The officer glanced at the papers in his hand.

"I have an apartment in a city that is a far away from here. It's a typical city, with all the good and bad people with it, but not as bad as Treasure Town is now. Sawada and I will be working at the police station over there. Unfortunately, I can't let you work there Black, unlike I could have let you here. In fact, you two can't really live there without the necessary official papers."

White scratched his head, "I dun get it."

Fujimura flashed a small smile towards White, then looked at Black, who was ready to strike at any time verbally. He just waited for the right time.

"My apartment is big enough for 4-5 people. But without any IDs however, you two can't live in an apartment. You'd be taken away immediately."

"You've already said that. Get to the point." Black growled as he was growing impatient. The papers in Fujimura's hand started to bug him.

Sawada raised an eyebrow at Black's harshness, but his partner ignored it and continued,

"In order for you two to have a new life in the new city, you two must be adopted officially."

The reaction of the two boys was in a sharp contrast.

Black's eyes went as wide as a dinner plate in utter horror, while White's face was lit up with a silly grin and began to bounce on the bed in happiness.

"Woah! You hear that, Black? We's gonna have parents! Isn't this cool?"

Black let out a squeak that sounded dangerously like a dying mouse's last scream of death, "W-White, I didn't even agree-"

"But Black!" White whined, "I hate this town! You hate it too!" he turned to the older officer, " And who's gonna adopt us?"

Black furrowed his eyebrows when White ignored him, "Hey!"

Fujimura smiled kindly at White, "I'd be the one adopting you two. Sawada's too young, and he is still under my care too. We four would be living together."

_That sounds so gay_. Black thought while pouting. The old police officer knew about Black's pride, so he looked at him with a serious expression,

"Black. I really tried everything, but this is the only solution to make the two of you out of here live. I swear, if you two are old enough to leave, I'll let you go and you can do whatever you want." Black was silent and was looking at his knees. He felt the man is waving a leash in front of him, waiting for him to expose his neck and attach it to his collar of freedom.

"Black?" White looked at his older brother with worry, "If we gets parents then we don't have to live in a car anymore!"

Suddenly, Dusk's words rang in his mind.

"_Yeah. They won't hurt you in the hospital. But the moment they release you, these… aliens will find you and make sure you are disposed of. My brother… My brother was thrown into the river, after being stabbed several times. I was only saved because I hid myself…"_

"Black? We could go to school!"

"_Black, we are being MURDERED!" _

"We don't have to steal anymore!"

"_We were tired of moving from city to city! We wanted to settle down once! _

"We'd get food whenever we want!"

_I will not have the fear, and respect of the townsfolk…_

"Maybe we'd get more friends! Huh! C'mon Black! Please!"

_I was always alone… and hated…_

"Black?" White was now pleading, jerking Black out of his negative thoughts, "Gramps would want us to leave too." He whispered, making Black feel like he got hit with a brick on the head. Then he felt his little brother putting his hand on his right shoulder,

"He said too that this town is no longer anyone's town. This isn't our home anymore, Black!"

Suddenly Black thought something completely unrelated to the topic and looked at his sibling with wide eyes, "White. Since when… can you talk this fluently?"

White grinned proudly, "I gots lessons with Sawada when I was with him! C'mon, Black! Please, please, please, please?"

"I got these papers from the orphanage. It now needs your signature." Fujimura interjected gently, making Black look at him, his eyes full with the feeling of being unsure, "I know you are going to make the right choice. You two didn't come this far together to end up cruelly murdered on the streets. The decision rests in your hands now… Takeru."

White blinked when Fujimura called Black Takeru. How long has it been since they called each other by their true names…? He gave Black a quizzical look, but he didn't even look at his sibling.

The moment when Fujimura said his true name, Black felt like an alarm went off in his head. Many feelings came to the surface, rushing like a huge waterfall, pushing, and urging him to make up his mind.

After a few moments of silence, Black finally spoke, "Only on one condition."

Fujimura's eyes lit up, while Sawada was taken aback, "Yes?"

His eyes held acceptance, "In the everyday life, call us Black and White."

A smile appeared on Fujimura's face and nodded.

White grinned and tackle-hugged his brother, who quickly flashed him a smile and a wink.

"YAY, YAY! WE GOTS PARENTS NOW! THEY ARE BOTH MEN, BUT SO COOL!" White yelled with all of his might.

"Easy there, White!" Sawada laughed, but he soon got tackle-hugged too by White, who kept squealing.

Fujimura brought the paper to Black's view and gave him a pen. With a soft tone in his voice, the officer continued,

"We'll try our best, Black. You will get the proper education and care you should have gotten many, many years ago." Black didn't give any verbal reply, only nodded and signed where he should have, then returned the papers to the officer. When he got it back, the scarred boy finally spoke again,

"I do have one question though."

His newly adopted-father glanced at him, "And what is that?"

Black ignored White's protests ("Don't be rude! Hey! HEY!"), "Why are you doing this? Why is this good for you? No one has been kind to us out of pure heart. Aside from Gramps." He said sharply. White sat in Sawada's lap and watched the conversation between the two.

Fujimura glanced down, "Black. Not all the adults are evil you know. I've known you two since you were little. I wouldn't live down if your lives ended on the streets cruelly. Believe me, Black."

The scarred boy searched for any betrayal in the officer's eyes, but he found none. And indeed, they have a history behind them. He never put him behind iron bars, whereas he should have. He never put him to an orphanage. He helped White. And now, he is offering him an easier life.

Perhaps, in this new life of theirs, he should be more thankful.

To Fujimura's and Sawada's utter surprise, Black smiled and nodded.

White launched another hug making Black fall back on the bed and yelp a shout of pain. The little boy ignored it and kept squealing "Be happy, be happy!"


	7. A Nightmare

Chapter 7

A Nightmare's End, A Journey's Beginning

The sound of joyful laughter and happy conversations echoed throughout the hall of the old hospital. The four residents of the room were talking about the arrangement of the future moving that would be taking place. Three out of the four of them were energetic and were constantly brainstorming and planning it, but the fourth participant wasn't so eager to join in. All he did was silently nod as he watched as someone took over the leader role of his life and led him to somewhere else.

Black hated this feeling. He could perfectly handle when something unexpected happened in their everyday life – but that could be because he was in control, and no one else. He'd always find a solution, get out of trouble and save the day or just procrastinate the inevitable bad ending. And what was he doing now? He bowed his head to a greater authority, and with clenched teeth, he let him lead his life. He accepted the deal, but that doesn't mean he liked it. Not even for one bit.

But for them – especially now – it would be the best choice. Just like mister Fujimura had said himself.

And so, he was leaning against the headboard of the bed, careful, not to open any wounds that were patched up and silently watched and listened as the three occupants of the room talked about their future. The topic at hand was the accommodation – according to all the information Fujimura provided, they would live in a flat, just the three of them. Sawada already made preparations for his own accommodation and would sometimes check up on them. To him, this still sounded gay. Even so, Black knew the officer would not be "home" so much. In Treasure Town, he spent 90% of his time in the office doing paperworks and such. Changing towns wouldn't change his lifestyle. He blinked.

"… and White, you should attend pre-school first." Fujimura's voice rang in Black's ears as he finally turned his attention from his depression to the conversation. The older man sounded serious and Sawada looked neutral. White on the other hand seemed to focus on Fujimura with all his might.

"What's a pre-school?" he asked and scratched his chin while deep in thought, "I already can countta ten!"

"In order for you to get into school, you must learn more. Don't worry, in pre-school, they will teach you everything." Fujimura smiled. White considered the idea and as simple minded he was, he nodded. The older man noticing how the darker half of the siblings is quiet, turned to him – much to his annoyance, which he showed by sighing – and started questioning him too,

"Black, you've been awfully quiet since you signed the forms." He whispered and searched the boy's – now one of his adopted "sons'" face "I thought you agreed with this."

To his concerned voice, White turned his own little attention to his brother.

Black let his eyes rest a little. He was still sore from the freshly patched up wounds and he had a little energy left to argue. Too much shit has been happening to them lately.

"I didn't say I disagree." He began in a raspy voice as it was long hours ago since he used his vocal cords. He opened his eyes tiredly, "It's just that I'm not overall happy with the situation. It bothers me. That's all. And as a matter of fact, I'm tired aswell. Not to be rude or anything it's just… It has been a long day." White stood up and started towards an unknown destination in the room. Sawada looked on with interest as the little boy got around the bed and proceeded towards the window.

Fujimura nodded, ignoring White's mysterious walking, "Alright. I'm going to make some arrangements then. The doctor says a few more days and you can leave the hospital. He says your wounds were not that deep. But he insists you take it easy for weeks."

Black was about to agree with the officer when suddenly a harsh wind almost literally slapped him in the face, making his overgrown hair slap against his eyes aswell. Surprised, both Black and Fujimura tore their eyes to the window only to see White grinning his mad grin and was facing towards the now fully opened window. If the sudden wind wasn't enough to startle the residents of the room, he yelled out to the world to hear,

"Air, air makes everyone feel bettterrr!" he squealed in his high-pitched voice and grinned, watching the reaction of the older people of the room. Black grumbled as he tried to make his hair stop slapping into his eyes, while the two adults stood up. This time Sawada took the parental role,

"White, close the window. Black's gonna catch a cold if this draft keeps up." With a pout White obeyed and then trotted back to his brother's bed who now finished moving his hair out of his face with an annoyed and tired look. "You two should rest up a little."

"Agreed." Fujimura said as he stood calmly and watched as Black rather awkwardly got under the covers and prepared to do as Sawada suggested, "Judging by the speed of your recovering Black, we'll move out in three days. Will that be enough time?"

"Fine by me." He replied nonchalantly "I don't have many stuff to move from the car. Aside from my staff and-"

"Now hold on a second." Fujimura interrupted, "No weapons, remember? Society has rules you know. And if you want to start a new life, you have to pay attention to the-"

"Alright, alright." Just like months before, Black got annoyed with him at the very same part of the sentence. This time, however, he couldn't kick anything out from his mouth. "I got it."

"I could help while Black sleeps!" White chirped and bounced next to the officers with a smile. "I'm not sleepy at all." To that, all of them looked at Black with a questioning look who shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure. That's fine by me. I'll rest up, recover soon and then we can go." It was such an alien feeling to him. Leave this town… And live somewhere else? He still didn't get used to this idea. But to White, he immediately adapted to the new atmosphere. Secretly he was jealous of this ability of his. How the hell did he do this?

The soon to be last rays of the sun gently peeked in and bathed the four residents of the room. White grinned and patted Black's healthy hand, "I'll be back when you wake up! We'll pack everything out of the car!" To that, he gave his younger sibling a warm smile.

"Alright. I'll try to recover soon." White grinned in reply. Wishing him a speedy recovery, all three visitors of the boy left. As soon as he was alone in the room, he couldn't help but feel a little vulnerable. He ducked under the covers, but he couldn't escape the sinister feeling he felt – that something is definitely wrong.

The journey to the boys' car was not a long ride, but while doing so, it got dark. Along the way, White kept singing random songs he thought up just in that exact moment and time, much to the officers' amusement (more likely Sawada's amusement as he was paying more attention to the kid rather than the driving Fujimura). As they couldn't really park underneath the bridge, they stopped the patrol car not so far from the humble, yet poor home. As soon as the engine stopped rumbling, White like a rocket, shot out from the car and sped off towards the previous home of theirs.

Since Sawada hasn't seen the home when it was not damaged, it was only Fujimura who gasped at the state the place was in. His eyes remained on the pile of metal and wood. It seemed like the "furniture" the children built out of everything they could collect over the years was destroyed with one hit. Even so, visiting this place at nighttime gave it a sinister, cold and abandoned feeling. His observation didn't go unnoticed by White, who gave his newly-adopted-father a ghost of a smile,

"The alien came here and threw Black against our balcony." He walked up to the car slowly, "But that alien" he reached out for the handle "is burned." He encircled his fingers around it.

His eyes shot open, wide awake now. He didn't know why he woke up, he just awoke. As he looked around, he saw it was already dark, and judging by the dim lights, the nurses had retired for the night. Everything was silent, and dark.

With a groan, he sat up and felt for his hair. He didn't have a mirror, but he could imagine his hair looked like a messed up crow-nest now. Right now the pure white blankets now seemed to be sewn out of darkness aswell. Rubbing his eyes in a bored way, he looked around. Why the hell did he wake up? Once again, that weird feeling in his stomach started to rise, making him feel sick. Great, did he catch flu or something…?

It was then when he heard calm, steady and slow footsteps. It echoed in the darkness, and it made all the hairs on the boy's body stand up.

"What a nice photo. I've never thought you guys have a something like this." Sawada said as he saw the photo of the baby siblings, which was now in White's hand. Fujimura was inspecting the remains of the "furniture". It turned out Black had packed everything in the sack, except the photo.

"Black hoped to return." White whispered as he gazed at the old photo of theirs. He didn't remember how or when this photo was taken, or how Black got it. He remembered the first time when his brother showed this to him.

_They were still very young, but Black was getting better at stealing money, and smaller stuff. But he couldn't do it with his brother's help, so he always had to leave him there in the car. But of course, the younger brother either always got scared or bored when his brother left for hours._

_One day, when he was about to go on a mission again, White was especially sad. That day was his 8th birthday and knew Black would go out for especially long to look for a birthday present for him. They were sitting inside the car and White was trying to hold back his tears when his brother turned around to search his backpack. The birthday-boy thought his older brother was looking for something edible or something he could use as a weapon on this special mission._

_With a gentle smile, he got something out of the backpack, but hid it behind him. White gave him a questioning gaze, and for an answer, Black revealed the photo to his little brother._

"_Don't cry, White. We are always going to be together." _

_White still didn't know how to react. It touched him deeply and silently watched as his brother put the photo on the mirror, above them._

"_I'll put it here, so whenever you feel lonely, you can look up and see us together. You won't be lonely anymore."_

_With a teary grin, White hugged Black and kept sobbing into his shirt._

_To him, this was the best birthday ever._

_Later that day, Black returned with a big blue-bear-head shaped hat. Up until this day, that hat is his most treasured treasure._

If Black wanted to leave this photo behind, that would only confirm he'd always wanted to return to Treasure Town. And in his little mind, White promised to him, that when they get older they would return.

Sawada was staring at the boy who was lost in his own world. Seeing White this focused made him a little uneasy. Suddenly an idea popped in his head.

"Hey, White, do you want to see my friend and me when we were youngsters?" he asked with a smile. To that, the boy immediately grinned and nodded. Sawada reached for his pocket, only to find it empty.

"Curses!" he swore when he finally accepted the fact, that he lost what he was looking for, "I think I lost my wallet!"

"Maybe you left it at the hospital?" Fujimura suggested as he was gazing at the dead fish, "When was the last time you used it?"

"You are right! I left it at the hospital, on Black's table. Um…" Sawada trailed off, but Fujimura nodded towards him,

"You can take the car. The hospital's open all night long. And it's not that late yet. We'll walk with White to the police station." White grinned and immediately ran to Fujimura, while Sawada walked up to the car.

"Alright, I'll return the car as fast as I can!" he waved and grabbed the handle.

Black's pulse seemed to beat rapidly as the calm footsteps got closer. Every part of him screamed to hide, to get away as far as possible, because a threat is coming and that's why he couldn't sleep. With shaking limbs and as quietly as possible, he got out of the bed. He couldn't leave the room by its exit because then, he would be bumping into the unwanted guest. So, he gently rolled and tucked the blankets and pillows in a human shape.

As he did so, the footsteps grew even closer, and his pulse was skyrocketing. Fear clutched him as he now shivered with cold. His wounds were not aching now, as his adrenaline kicked in and stroked the pain away.

The person was really close now. Not getting any better idea, he quickly ducked and crawled under the bed, not minding the filth underneath. His teeth chittered, and he was shaking.

The footsteps stopped at his room's threshold. From his cover, he could see that the person was an adult – his feet were big and was wearing black boots. But… something was wrong with the boots. He couldn't quite see it, but as he feared, the owner of the shoes stepped over his threshold and walked towards his bed.

As the silence-shattering calm feet neared, he saw what was wrong with the boots – they were burned. But who the hell wears burnt boots?

_Shhhhllliiiick._

The sound of a metallic weapon unsheathed resonated in Black's ears.

White once again looked around and noticed something odd. As he was walking around, White couldn't shake a weird feeling off of him. His adopted-father took no hesitation to question him.

"What's wrong, White?"

White turned to him, slightly shivering, "I'm scared." He whimpered and hugged himself, startling Fujimura, "I'm so scared and so alone…"

Shit. Holy shit.

That thing that entered Black's room was the same monster that chased them for the first time. The same monster, that White took care of by burning it. But that… thing survived and was now thirsting for revenge. He curled up into a ball and shook more violently. The boots were right next to him now. He heard some shifting and then felt an unimaginable strong force hitting from above violently and several times – that monster was stabbing the sheets mercilessly. All Black could do was curl himself tighter and whimper soundlessly as he jerked every time the knife embedded itself into the sheets. He clutched his head and buried his face into his knees, praying the monster would leave soon.

The alien let out an angry unearthly hiss, as he began to tear the bed apart – it seems like he had noticed he was exacting his revenge on something fluffy.

Black hoped that after his unsuccessful mission, the alien would take his leave, but to his utter horror, the creature decided to take his anger out on the bed. Black couldn't get smaller, or run away – all he could do was stay put and hope that thing will be satisfied.

The bed was stabbed more violently than before and then came something unexpected happened – the madman simply grabbed the whole furniture, and threw it sideways, tearing the cover over Black's head off.

Two beams of light lit the side of the hospital, as a police car gently parked in the parking lot. The young officer swiftly opened the door and got out of the car.

Black couldn't even move, or scream – he felt himself being lifted up by his throat and the familiar iron-like-vice-grip cutting him off from his oxygen support. Just like months before, he was thrown against the wall, the remaining air knocked out of him. He managed to catch a glimpse of his captor and he immediately memorized the face forever in his mind – the monster's whole was burned to the raw flesh, it's eyes were blood red, and huge gashes distorted it's face. The bloodthirst in his eyes was the most fearsome pair of orbs the boy had ever seen.

Sawada entered the hospital building, and shoved his hands in his pockets and proceeded towards Black's room. This part of the hospital was empty, because this was the kid's part, and not many children were bed-ridden or seriously hurt at the moment.

A pair of distant footsteps echoed throughout the hospital's hall. This hit the monster by surprise and for a moment, he eased up his grip on Black's throat, who immediately grabbed the opportunity to let out a pitiful squeak that resembled a "help" calling. To that, the monster shoved his throat more against the wall, silencing him.

"Help me…" whimpered White as Fujimura tried to hug him, to keep him calm.

"White…? Where does it hurt?" he asked, now getting really confused. This was just like a few weeks ago, when White threw a huge tantrum about Black losing screws.

White kept clutching his throat.

"Black?" Sawada called out loudly, surprised to hear the boy's voice. Not to mention, the boy sounded quite miserable. He hastened his footsteps and hurried to the room. What the heck happened to him now?

Black could feel the world distorting around him. That bastard was suffocating him fast! He then caught a glimpse of something shiny in front of him. Great. Now that bastard raised the sword preparing to gut him out. Is this how he going to die? But he was just offered to live a new life… he didn't want to die yet.

_White… Where are you…?_

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" White screamed and suddenly began thrashing sideways, completely throwing Fujimura off guard. The little boy began rampaging in the pile that used to store their clothes and even went against the car, "I DIDN'T COME THIS FAR TO DIE!"

"White, no one wants to hurt you!" Fujimura was really scared now. What on earth happened to the boy? He walked up to the boy and forcefully hugged him.

"WHITE! WHERE ARE YOU, WHITE?" the little boy screamed, then he began letting out the same scream-squeaky-piercing wails as he did a few weeks ago as he was thrashing sideways in the old man's arms.

The world started to darken around him. He could barely see spots and he decided to accept his fate. He closed his eyes and waited for the piercing impact.

It was then, in his distorted world he heard storming footsteps, a surprised yell then an ear piercing bang shrilled the silence. Moments later, he fell to the ground (again, like months ago), he suddenly could breathe, and his vision started to focus again. He then heard something big fall somewhere around him, as if someone let a big rucksack of potatoes fall to it's side.

And then he heard someone call on his name. It echoed in his ears, as he felt someone gently grab him by the shoulders. His mind was getting cleaner as moments passed.

"Black? Oh God, Black, can you hear me?" Sawada, his mind told him. All the boy could let out was a gurgling groan.

"I know what you want to ask. I shot the bastard in the head. He's not going to be a problem anymore. Keep this a secret from your adopted dad though. I promised not to carry a pistol with me, he forbid me to do so." The boy let out a relaxing sigh and closed his eyes.

"Seems like your old bed is useless now, huh?" another, several pair of footsteps followed and a concerned, shocked voice rang,

"What on earth happened here? The police? Here? What the…"

Black couldn't really understand what was going on anymore. He slipped into unconsciousness, as the shock suddenly got to him and shut down his system.

When he woke up some time later, he found himself being carried. He then slipped into sleep again, and when he for the last time that night awoke, he felt he is in a bed again – only this time, when he opened his eyes to scan around a little, he found himself in a children's bedroom, full of toys and animal hats… when he confirmed that, he nodded his head into sleep again.


	8. Love, Hate, Redemption

Chapter 8

Love, Hate, Redemption

When Sawada finally reached the destined room, he was rendered speechless for a second. It took him only this much to immediately analyze the situation – the bed the young boy was occupying was now thrown to the other side of the room (seems like he found the source of the loud noise he heard outside in the lobby) and the aforementioned boy was pinned against the wall by a grotesque large figure. It didn't take long to realize the foreigner was hostile – a sword-like weapon was drawn and was hesitantly yet elegantly hanging in the air by it's holder. The young police officer quickly concluded that he stumbled upon the intruder's twisted idea of a sadistic sacrificial ritual.

He encountered these people before – they were roaming in the city and were not speaking in any earthly language he had heard of. Not that he heard any of them speak at all. Whenever they demonstrated the need of communication, they always did that by letting out ruff grunts and gurgles at times. None of these vocal let outs were friendly or heartwarming.

In these three critical seconds, these information blocks ran through the young officer's head and triggered him to instinctively reach for his pistol that was neatly hidden in the cover of his jacket, pull out the weapon and aim for the head. In the peak of the sixth second, he saw the intruder's muscles move and make the deadly sword point towards the young boy's hidden and still beating heart, in order to stop it by penetrating it. In that moment when the sword began to move, pulled Sawada the trigger.

The bullet blew out of it's metallic prison and soar through the still atmosphere of the room, shrilling the air with it's own music of death. It penetrated the alien's head in the left side and like a bored tourist would, it exited the other side, leaving behind a bloody mess and remains of flesh and gore.

The sword stilled only millimeters before the panicking boy's chest. The main source of movement was gone, but the muscles were still in work. In the tenth second was, when the muscles of the hand that was keeping the boy pinned to the wall eased up, making the young almost-victim slip to the ground. With the deadly grasp gone, the youth immediately and instinctively sucked in a big amount of oxygen in order to re-establish the order in his system.

Sawada lowered the gun, and as if it were a twisted synchronized movement, the body of the alien fell to the ground in synch with the officer's arm movement. It was then, when the mental bubble that surrounded Sawada disappeared and heard the doctors and nurses inquire and yell at him and the situation. They were all questioning him what happened, why he was there and who did he shoot when he shouldn't even have a gun with him at all. The young officer ignored the hospital employees and concentrated on the miserable boy lying on the ground. He excused himself and made his way to the boy, not really caring about the corpse that lay in front of Black.

"Black!" he called, his voice sounding desperate when he noticed the boy was breathing in shallows. He knelt down to him and gently grabbed his shoulders.

"Black? Oh, God…" _if Fujimura learns that one of his adopted sons died, I'll get killed_, "Black, can you hear me?" Sawada only received a painful and gurgling groan and noticed his eyes were open a little, and they were unfocused.

"I know what you want to ask. I shot the bastard in the head. He's not going to be a problem anymore. Keep this a secret from your adopted dad though. I promised not to carry a pistol with me, he forbid me to do so." At this, the young one let out a relaxed sigh and let his eyes close.

"Well, looks like your old bed is useless now, huh?" Sawada hoped a little humor could keep the boy conscious, but it seems like the shock of the today's events finally wore the young's biological system tired and it shut himself down. As he searched the boy's features he noticed how vulnerable he looked now, breathing in slow, nocturnal rhythm as his mind was finally at peace. He never thought he'd ever see the boy in such a relaxed state. The young policeman also noticed how his body suddenly got heavier, but he was still pitifully underweight. How much did he weigh? He was fifteen years old, but was slightly shorter than the average youngsters like him.

Sawada couldn't really ponder on these questions, because the employees immediately flocked around them and began showering them with unnecessary questions ("What happened here?"). So, with a sigh, he took the wallet he came for originally, shoved it into his pocket and said a few words to the others,

"The kid was attacked by an intruder. As you can see," he pointed to the sword that was now lying on the floor, the light of the corridor's lamp shimmering on it with deadly elegance, "he wanted to stab him. He was about to do so when I shot him in the head. As you can also see, that beast had the muscle-power to throw the bed to the other side of the room. Now if you'll excuse me…" he leaned down and gathered the sickly slim boy into his arms, "I'm taking the custody with me. His life is clearly exposed to danger here." More and more people were swarming in the room, along with the employees came the security guard of the hospital and he blocked the way out. He was a dark haired, slightly bulky man with rough features and a small mustache. He held his arm out so Sawada couldn't leave.

"Sir, Sawada sir, I don't think I can let you out. You clearly shot someone in the head in front of-"but Sawada was too tired to argue, so he cut in,

"If it hadn't been for your incompetent work, you wouldn't have let this monster in the building and it wouldn't have attacked this already injured child."

"But… sir…" he quickly eyed the unconscious dark haired boy with disgust, "This is Black who we are talking about." Sawada's eyes narrowed and he briefly felt the boy unconsciously gripping his shirt lightly, as if he was frightened by something.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked in a whisper, not wanting the boy to hear it. Whether he was unconscious or not, he still could understand any conversation that's taking place and that would form his thoughts later, when he wakes up.

The security officer shifted his weight from one foot to another, clearly feeling discomfort in answering,

"Well… he's just an orphan boy, sir. And not just any orphan. He's escaped from the Treasure Town Orphanage and he's caused a lot of ruckus in town _plus_ in the past months he even killed people! "The officer spoke in a hushed, but disgusted tone. His expression radiated with hate, and if he could, he would have spit on the boy by now,

"How can you let this rascal live? How do you know that man's hatred towards him was not rightful? Oh, we couldn't know now. You shot him dead." Sawada noticed how the boy's grip grew strong by the end of the sentence,

"You know what? You should've shot him to death. No one would miss him, right?" By now, the grip wasn't strong, but Sawada felt him shake in his arms. Never did he feel such protectiveness he felt right now. When did he grow close to these two? It must have begun when White was throwing a tantrum. He gave his best cold looks to the officer whose eyes immediately shone in the reflection of fright,

"Wouldn't be missed? Didn't you know? From this day forward, this kid and his brother White are officially deputy Fujimura's adopted sons." His sentence was like a command of silence in the room. He didn't stop here, "So if you ask me, the deputy would've been devastated to find out that one of his newly-adopted sons got stabbed to death. Orphan or not, he's still young and didn't have anyone to nudge him to the right path. But I will "nudge" you out of my way by force if you won't let us out." The small speech had it's effect on the officer (as Sawada saw on his nametag, his name was Hiro) and he immediately stepped away stuttering,

"I'm so sorry! If I had known he is… related to the deputy in any kind of way, I wouldn't have said such a thing!"

"Shut your trap." Sawada interrupted, "It's all thrash. I'll send a report to the hospital tomorrow. This boy needs some rest in a peaceful place already."

No one said a word as Sawada marched out of the room and slowly made his way to the abandoned police car. As he exited the old building, the evening breeze of winter greeted him with widely spread invisible arms and embraced the both of them. He felt a slight movement in his arms and glanced down, seeing the boy shifting, trying to regain the warmth he had in the building. He wasn't really dressed for outside – his short pants and think t-shirt was strictly for hospital indoors. Sawada let out a sigh, which formed a small puff of white cloud in the cold air and quickly ran to the car and put the young boy in the backseat, so he could lie down and still fasten the seatbelt around him. With a tired sigh again escaping his lips, he started the car.

When Sawada appeared with Black in his arms in the police department, he was greeted by White who didn't seem to be fazed by his brother's unconsciousness. Instead, he had a knowing look on his face and nodded silently towards his room. White sure had his way of communicating.

Somewhere in the distance, on top of a concrete building, a crow let out a long cry, flapped it's wings and flew towards the moon.

_Scratch, scratch, scratch._

That was the first chain of rhythmic sound the young injured boy heard the moment he gained consciousness. He felt he was once again in a bed, but refused to open his eyes yet. He was finally catching up on his sleep and there's no way he'll get up in the next few hours.

_Scratch, scratch, scratch. Scraatch._

His eyebrows slid closer as he pulled the warm blanked over his head and lay in a fetal position. Can't he just have his sleep?

_Knock, scratch. Kaw, kaw! Growl._

To this sound, Black finally opened his eyes only to see darkness as he was under the covers now. He quickly pulled it off from himself – briefly noticing his wounds didn't hurt as much as they did a few days ago – and quickly observed his surroundings.

As he had noticed it once when he woke up, he was in a children's bedroom – there were toys and simple drawings scattered around, creating a slightly suffocating atmosphere. He immediately recognized the drawings: they were all White's. So was he in White's room that was ensured by the police? He glanced down to himself only to notice he was still in his hospital clothes. Then the memories of previous night rushed into his mind. Getting attacked and saved, Sawada must have brought him to the police station then!

_Kaw, kaw! Growl, mrowr! Scratch._

"What the?" Black now turned his attention to the window that was – as he now noticed – in front of him, and above the ground level. It was then when he also noticed that he was sleeping on a makeshift bed, not even a real one that consisted of many blankets and a mattress. However, nothing was as interesting in the room as the two guests Black had on the other side of the window.

There, by the window stood a relatively big crow and next to him a pitch black cat who was scratching the window and meowing furiously. Sometimes the crow aided it's partner and knocked on the glass with it's beak.

"You guys…?" Black's pale and worried face was now brightened with a smile as he enthusiastically hopped off from the makeshift bed and rushed to the window, opening it eagerly. The morning breeze passed him by, as he quickly noticed it was still dark outside. The crow quickly flew in and landed on the school desk that stood in the middle of the room and kept flapping it's wings as if it was annoyed.

"Poe?" Black whispered only to get an annoyed _kaw_ in response and a little too loudly. He cringed and was about to shush the annoyed bird when a warm, furry body began to climb up to his face, meowing in an annoyed tone, making him slightly jump in surprise. This only made the small feline purr more and lean in, only to make Black hurriedly grab it's backside, cradling it. The cat began to rub it's face into his neck affectionately in returned and kept meowing hopelessly, pawing at his chest, making him chuckle.

"I don't have any food right now, you know. I can't feed you." He only got a meow as an answer, as if it was saying it doesn't care and kept up it's affectionate actions to prove it. It was then, the crow who was called Poe took the chance and landed on the boy's left shoulder and gently pecked his temple, demanding for attention.

With a grin, the scarred boy used his hand which was not trapped under the cat (his left, healthy one) and began to gently stroke the crow's neck which he seemed to enjoy a lot – it tilted it's head and closed it's eyes, enjoying the human's touch.

As he did so, fragments of yesterday's memory came to the surface – some which he didn't remember being awake, but a sentence rang in his mind,

"_How can you let this rascal live? You know what? You should've shot him to death. No one would miss him, right?"_

He blinked, and stopped his actions for a moment, shocked. Who the hell said that and when? He didn't really remember. Was he really that… hated? He is wanted dead that bad…?

It was then when he felt a paw hit his nose and felt the cat's slightly wet nose poking his cheek, and the crow leaning it's head into his still slightly palm, wanting his touch. He snapped out of his dark thoughts and grinned, continuing his secret guilty pleasure of spoiling his two "pets".

"What the hell I was thinking. White would miss me, and so would you guys." They were silent, but their presence there proved they were really attached to him. How would he tell Fujimura about Poe and his cat? He decided he'll deal with this later. He gently walked to the makeshift bed and lay under the covers – Poe first jumped off from his shoulder and onto the floor, tipping it's head curiously – and prepared to sleep. He let the window open in case any of them wanted to leave.

He made himself comfortable and felt the black cat gently stepping onto his cover and silently curling up beside his face, making its own head pop out next to his, purring.

The crow decided sleeping on a bed would not be comfortable, so it got comfortable on the floor and didn't move again that night.

Black smiled and was now half asleep, when he heard Sawada talk to Fujimura. Since his instincts were sharpened thanks to the life on the street, his senses didn't dull when he went to sleep. He heard Sawada explaining Fujimura what happened last night and what Officer Hiro said about Black and how the young officer countered. To that, his smile grew wider and reached out to pull the cat beside him more which the cat didn't oblige. And finally, maybe the first time in his life, he had a calm, happy dream.

Phew! ^^

Another chapter. It took me approx. 7-8 hours to done, but I've had this idea for some time now, and thought I'd do some explanation about what really happened in the previous chapter.

Fun Facts:

- Poe's name comes from Edgar Allan Poe. Black loves to read and whenever he had time he'd always do so (as seen in the manga and anime once). Maybe Poe is not his favourite author, but out of respect for his writings, which are mostly dark, he names the crow after him. Edgar A. Poe has a poem called "The Raven".

- The cat's name is yet a mystery but will have a name in the same caliber - either an author's or a mythical character's in a book or myth.

- When people are unconscious/asleep they sometimes can hear what people say. To me it happened several times. I didn't even know who told me and when, because I was asleep, but I know what was said. Hence Black suddenly remembers what the officer said about him -it gave him a sudden shock


	9. Ma'am

Chapter 9

Ma'am

Black was still awake and was half-listening to the conversation the police officers had, not so far away from the room he was currently resting in. Their conversation merely consisted of Sawada telling his superior about the events in the hospital (including the insult the other officer made towards Black). The young boy was both surprised and grateful at the same time for Sawada who protected him verbally. Now that was something unexpected coming from the frigid officer and that was something Fujimura voiced too. The tired boy let out a yawn and was mimicked by the small feline animal that was resting next to his head peacefully. As he was mildly eavesdropping on the conversation the adults were having, he couldn't help, but wonder about the two other residents in the room. How could they find him so easily? Were they watching over him from afar when he was lost in his own mind?

"So where's White?" he heard Sawada ask and Black slightly turned his ear towards the door to hear better.

"He's sleeping in my office – he offered his room up to Black before he even knew he'd come here. He had another tantrum again. He was screaming about not wanting to die but he wasn't fighting like last time." Last time? Tantrum? Black's eyebrows slid closer as he made a frown. What the heck were they talking about? "From what you told me, he went into this mind-state while Black was attacked, so I assume he somehow felt his brother's life was in danger." Black blinked.

In the past, Gramps had mentioned White had a certain mental ability (or connection?) he couldn't understand nor believe in. But from what he heard just a moment ago, he was now certain that they do share a special bond, just like their caretaker once said. As he thought about it, it did make sense. He could always come to White's aid when he was in immediate danger, or sense whenever his lighter half was about to break into tears. He always arrived onto the scene to save White's ass just a moment before he got hit or caught red-handed in thieving. He never really put much thought into it – he always thought it was pure luck. On the other hand, White mysteriously always knew when not to bother Black with his senseless talks ("Girls don't have peckers! Didya know that?") or when to give his elder partner a sympathetic pat on the shoulder (he didn't really like to receive hugs). So, he concluded silently, they did have a special mind connection afterall.

"Do you think that's the case?" Sawada asked in a bored tone, breaking Black's chain of thoughts,

"Well, I can't find any other possible explanation for that behavior. Besides, the same time Black was raging in that amusement park, White was having that terrible panic attack and then he mysteriously calmed down after he confirmed that Black's okay now."

Did his brother really do that?

He looked to the side to see the cat's sleeping form beside him and notice how the crow, Poe's eyes glistened in the moonlight. The way the bird cocked it's head and the way the moonlight reflected in it's eyes felt like it was saying, 'Why aren't you sleeping yet?'. To that, the boy sighed and turned towards the wall. Sheesh, animals can be so demanding sometimes. Several moments later, he drifted into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

Just like emerging from a dive into the calm water, White gently awoke from his sleep with a smile. He stretched out in the comfortable office chair he was resting in (his makeshift bed was occupied by Black in the other room) and looked up to the beautiful orange colored morning rays seep into the room through the office window. He didn't know when he fell asleep finally, but he knew it was pretty late when he finally did so. Balancing on the chair's edges he sprung from his resting place and looked around.

Fujimura's office was small and humble – there were papers and documents set neatly on his table and of course, as all policemen's trusted ally, a cup was also sitting proudly on the flat workplace. As White inspected the cup a little more, he noticed that it had a strange dark liquid in it – as he remembered, Fujimura said he always needs a cup of coffee when he's working into the night to keep him go. White went closer to the desk and leaned over the cup to look at the mysterious coffee more. What did it taste like? Was it good?

He quickly looked around to ensure no one was looking, and gingerly lifted the cup towards his small lips. The moment he took a sip of the dark liquid, a bitter and sour taste invaded his taste buds and he almost dropped the cup, but instead, slammed it back to it's place while trying to spit out the unfavorable taste.

"Eeeew!" he whined as he eyed the cup with a grimace. It had such a nice smell, but it tasted horrible! How could Fujimura drink this?! Adults are really weird…

Really soon he got bored of just staying inside of the office, so he swiftly made his way towards the door. As he turned the doorknob and opened his way out, there right at the threshold stood his newly adopted parent with a tired smile. Guessing by that, White thought the man didn't sleep much at night.

"Good morning White. I assume you took a sip from the coffee?" the old man asked, humor shining in his eyes. That meant he wasn't angry at him for not asking before sipping. White let his signature grin spread on his small face,

"I did and it was horrible. What's for breakfast?"

Fujimura raised an eyebrow, "I thought you're going to wait till your brother wakes up."

To that, White pouted, "But I'm hungry now!"

The officer sighed in defeat and turned around,

"I'll see what I can grab from the bakery store. Stay inside the building, alright? After you both had breakfast, we are leaving to create your official ID cards."

It's not like White really understood what Fujimura was talking about, but he nodded nonetheless, "M'kay! I'll wait then!"

Just as Fujimura started going towards the entrance, the stairs next to him which lead upstairs, creaked, and a very messy-headed young scarred boy was walking down, one hand rubbing his eye and the other trying to comb his hair out of his face. As he was descending down the stairs, White noticed how he still limped and was careful not to put too much pressure on his wounded leg.

Despite knowing how grumpy his brother was in the mornings, it was in White's daily routine to pester him,

"Good morning, Black!" he chirped as the older brother slowly and finally got down and still kept rubbing his eye. Just as White was about to continue, both he and the officer noticed the small feline animal that was following the older boy like a shadow. It padded down and landed gracefully at it's young owner's leg and rubbed itself against it. Despite the affection it gave, all Black did was let out a grunt to White's greeting.

The younger brother only smiled as he knew about the cat, while on the other hand Fujimura was surprised to see an animal in the office.

"Black?" he let out and still kept staring at the cat who now began to purr and circle around the boy, still rubbing itself against his legs. Black finally stopped rubbing his eye, but kept his hand on his face as he gave a flat look to their caretaker.

"What?" he grunted, but Fujimura ignored his grumpiness.

"There's a cat at your feet…" he began slowly. Black snorted and White began to giggle but he tried to stifle it by putting his hands to his mouth. He knew how precious the cat was to his brother and he also knew what happened to those who just looked at his pet the wrong way. His brother was the embodiment of the expression "Possessive".

"I know." He rasped. The cat decided it had enough circling and now it stood up on it's two legs, stretched itself out, and put it's forepaws on his knees, begging for attention. White mused on the conversation and wondered when the cat will give up.

It seems like when Fujimura said he'd adopt them, he decided to grow parental instincts and behavior aswell. He was now wearing a serious expression as he spoke again,

"You never told us you had a pet."

And it seems like White's older brother decided to enter the teenager state, when the young adolescents just love to rebel and look at the adults as enemies. Black already had that feature, now he seemed to gain the being "sarcastic and brash" feature.

"You never asked." He grunted and let his hands fall to his side. To the cat's constant pestering, he finally leaned down and gathered the small animal into his arms. The cat began to rub it's face against his cheek. Despite the loving animal's actions, the boy still had that stone cold stoic face when he looked at Fujimura. The officer sighed, seemingly pissed off by Black's sudden brashness. He knew they had a long and rocky way to go till the both of them are big enough to start their own individual life.

The officer put his hands on his hips and gave him his most serious expression,

"It would have been nice to know. Besides, I'm not even sure the neighbors would approve of us having a pet. Besides, you can't take care of it as-"

"Her." He cut in impudently, still no emotions shown neither on his face, or in his tone. "She's a female cat."

Fujimura tried not to be angry at his newly-adopted teenager, so he cleared his throat, "What really is important right now, is that you cannot take care of the… cat as intensely as you did before. You will go to school, so will your brother and I won't be home most of the times. Whereas-"

"She's fine on her own." He cut in again as the cat shifted in his arms, "And she's a stray cat. She wouldn't be in the house a lot."

"But still, Black. We need to take her to the vet, give her injections if you want to take care of her. Either she's your pet, or a stray cat. She cannot be both."

Black lowered his gaze to Fujimura's words when White chimed in, "What's a wet? Do we have to get her have a bath?"

Fujimura quickly told White what a vet is and then turned his attention to Black, "I see she's quite fond of you. You want to have her as a pet, right?"

The scarred boy didn't say anything for a short time. He shifted his weight so less weight was weighed on his injured leg and then he replied,

"That's up to her."

Fujimura seemed to understand and nodded, "I do hope that's everything you hid from me, Black. No more secrets, okay?"

The boy looked up to the officer and bobbed his head as the sign of his approval. The older man now turned to the entrance and grabbed the doorknob. Unbeknownst to them, White had an evil grin on.

"Alright then. I told White before, but I'll tell you too. I'll go and get you something to eat then we'll finally create your ID cards." His gaze now took more inspection to the older boy's hair, "…But we should do something with your hair first. Don't you agree?"

For the first time in the morning, Black had an emotional expression on his face. His lips twitched downwards to a bitter frown as he replied, "It was always Gramps who cut our hair. When he was busy, I'd cut White's hair. For my hair sometimes I did it myself but… it's too long now."

To that, Fujimura's expression softened. "I see. I'll arrange an appointment with a hairdresser friend of mine. Is it okay?"

For a moment, the scarred boy's eyes narrowed but then he calmed down when the cat meowed, "Sure."

And that was the moment which was destined to be disturbed by a yet unseen member of the group. At first, all they could hear was a high-pitched and very, very loud "kaw". To that, everyone's attention immediately turned to the room's entrance which Black stepped out of. While White and Fujimura had a questioned look on their faces, Black's face was the typical example of "Oh My God". A fragment of a second later, a feathery arrow with wings shot out from the room, spread its wings to halt its fast burst out. With a flap, it turned ninety degrees, let out yet another "kaw" which strangely sounded happy, and with a diving move, it aimed for the poor scarred boy. Before it could have collided with his face, it immediately spread it's wings again and elegantly landed on it's master's shoulder, it's talons securely but not painfully etched into his shirt.

The bird calmly cocked it's head and let out a questioning "kaw".

White couldn't control it anymore. He burst out laughing, falling on his butt while Black let an embarrassed and sheepish smile light up his features as Fujimura's face got distorted with every passing second.

"…Takeru…?" he called the boy in a warning tone. Black was always proud of his survival instinct. It never failed him and always warned him when the situation grew dire and he needed to do a turn in his life. This was one of those moments, when his survival instinct immediately alarmed him to be nice. So he forced himself to calm down and decided to be nice while trying to ignore the laughter emitting from his little brother.

"….Yes?" as if on cue to make things worse, Poe let out another kaw and affectionately began to peck on his master's ear. It was clearly hungry, but he showed it in the worst time possible. Fujimura's eye twitched.

"Is that another pet of yours?" he said each word quieter and slower so the boys knew their new "father" was on the edge of bursting into a tantrum. To his dangerously low voice, White stopped laughing and kept looking at his new "family".

Even though he didn't mean to be cocky, the truthful answer was what he spoke cautiously,

"Sort of." Before he could have gotten a lecture, he quickly added, "Whenever I jump from roof to roof, he sometimes accompanies me and I sometimes feed him."

"And he usually covers us from the skies!" White shouted, worsening the situation. Fujimura was at a loss of what to say. He put his hands onto his face and let out a long, exhausted sigh. He was defeated mentally. This was going to be a long day.

"Just keep the animals away from the papers and people, okay? No one will tolerate them here."

Both of the boys let out a whisper of approval as he exited his part of the police department.

Just how many secrets did these boys have?

The boys inside were still a little surprised, but the purring and the small sounds the crow made slowly nagged them back to reality.

"D'you think Pa's mad at us?" White asked Black as he was sitting on the floor Indian style. Even though Black would have looked relatively nice with his animal friends on him, he still looked dangerous as he snapped disbelievingly at White,

"Who?!" he sounded more confused than angry.

"Pa." White replied and cocked his head towards the closed door. "Y'know. Fujimura."

Something boiled within Black. The cat, feeling that, licked his cheek, but he ignored it, "He's not our "pa", White. He just adopted us."

White, as if he was only having a light conversation with his brother, chirped back happily, "But that's just it, Black. He adopted us, so that makes him our Pa!"

Black turned to his brother swiftly, which made Poe dangerously sway on his shoulder, so he had to open his wings in order to not fall off. He kawed in protest and hit his beak against Black's temple, as a sign of his frustration.

"That still doesn't make him our-so-called parent, White. He did it, because as he said, he feels responsible. No honest feelings at all." If his arms were free, he'd crossed them, but instead, he huffed, "You don't understand yet. You will, when you get older."

White slowly stretched his hands and looked at his hands with a small, knowing smile. "Bullshit."

Black blinked as his eyes widened. White never swore in his life, so this was very sudden, "What…? And how dare you talk like-"

"Liar, liar, pants on fire." White sang as he looked at his brother with that smile of his, "Yous always says that, when yous not agree. And you talk dirty. I got that from you."

Black's shocked expression didn't wear off and he didn't care that the cat was now nipping at his hair and pawing at his cheek. He always avoided talking dirty in front of his little brother. Why was he talking so fluently? So dirtily? How come he started to disobey him? Not to mention, have a person placed above _him_? This whole adoption story once again tore White away from him. And he didn't like it one bit. He was his only family, and he started to shy away from him again.

Before he could say anything, White cut in calmly, "Why? We called Gramps Gramps, but he was never our real grandpa, y'know?" he gave a knowing look to his brother, "Why's you hate Fujimura so much? He tries hard. I do too. You are not."

"Not trying?!" he hissed and for the first time, he looked at the cat. For a moment, his expression softened, but only till he put the feline down. He clenched his fists as he looked at his brother, "Look at us! We never argue on anything. But I see you take sides with that "Pa" of yours instead of me!" he spat, "How could you adapt to the situation so quick?! Live on the streets one day, pampered for in a twirl of a moment? Fujimura could have adopted us sooner if he wanted to help us so much! Don't you understand, White? Being cared for with fake feelings is worse than being alone!"

"He always wanted to help." White said silently, "Yous didn't wanna. You ejected him."

"That's rejected, and he only offered a job. Not a home."

"Would you have accepted that offer?" White asked, but he already knew the answer.

"… No. We were fine as we were back then." Black replied in defeat.

"We weren't." White replied seriously and stood up, surprising his brother. "And you know it too, Black. Please, don't hurt Pa. Maybe we can keep our promise with his help." He hiccupped by the end of his sentence. As Black watched he saw his brother's eyes were slowly filling up with tears. "You haven't forgotten our promise, have you? Or do you not want go to the beach?"

In an instant, all of his anger faded as he replied softly, "No. I haven't forgotten. And I want it too."

White smiled again and ran up to hug his brother, who hissed in pain, as his injured leg suddenly got some weight put on it while Poe kawed and flapped it's wings in annoyance but didn't move an inch.

"White…" Black wanted to tell his brother that his sudden happiness was not fully appreciated by his leg, but as usual, White was acting like… well, like White.

"Black?" he said in a sing-song voice. "I'm hungry."

He hated his overgrown, long hair and he knew they needed to do something against it. His new caretaker didn't take the responsibility to cut his hair instead, asked one of his so-called friends to give him a quick cut. To his surprise, Fujimura said that his friend happily said yes and that she eagerly is waiting for them. Black immediately knew that the old man forgot to say whom he wants to give a haircut to. The boy was a hundred percent sure, that no one in this town would dare to touch him, especially if the said process involves sharp objects to be around him.

Fujimura took out some of the clothes that were in the bag, so they could dress up properly for the weather outside. White insisted to come along, and no one could imagine him not to come, but to the sibling's surprise, Sawada joined in aswell. He explained he's Fujimura's closest colleague and he wants to learn a lot from his boss.

Even though they traveled by car, and they had enough security, Black still felt insecure.

He hoped that the boss of the bounty hunters finally took interest in something else and they would leave him and his brother alone to do all the necessary stuff and get out of this town.

White kept bouncing up and down on his seat, while Black calmly watched his former town being renovated into an amusement park. His wound throbbed dully, but not as much as it did many days ago. He then twisted his hand to look at his palm. The arrow wound now was barely hurting there, and he could see the new line of the scar forming. Another one to add to the collection, he mused.

He blinked as he noticed White's gaze on him. He silently turned his attention to his sibling with a questioning look who shrugged in response.

Suddenly, the car stopped with a soft bump and Fujimura gently said, "We're here!"

The boys looked up at the small and humble saloon. They knew this place by looks, but never really went inside. It wasn't that run down as some of the small shops of the city, but it wasn't too clean either. It was a small hair saloon with it's small circle of customers. The shop itself was poorly decorated, the main colors being red, blue and white. Talk about a colorful service…

Everyone got out of the car, though Black needed a little help from White as he wobbly managed to crawl out of his seat. Even though he was protesting in his mind, Fujimura took him gently by his elbow and helped him walk towards the small building. There was already a scowl forming on his face, but when he heard the whispers of surprise and hate behind him from the streetfolk, his scowl turned colder and angrier. It was enough that he had to wear his hair in a ponytail which was embarrassing enough.

Sawada opened the door for them, and they all welcomed the gentle warmth that was inside the saloon. White of course ran in front them and greeted all the workers there with a grin. Even though Black was never a person of fright instead, the root of it, he still felt a pang of panic when all the workers grinned and greeted White with warmth and kindness.

The reason why he panicked was because almost all of these people had seen what he had done when he lost his mind. And that happened a few weeks ago and he was sure he was not an easily forgettable sight.

One of the workers, a short red haired woman turned to Fujimura with a genuine smile which the officer gladly returned. Black felt like he swallowed a few ice cubes.

"Fujimura my friend! You're just in time! Now who's the little boy I've got to-"her gaze turned to the boy who was clutching onto the officer and her smile immediately melted into pure fear.

As if there was a silent command to do that, everyone in the saloon turned their attention to the pair. In an instant, the warm atmosphere was filled up with the chilling touch of hatred.

And for the first time in his short life, Black was scared.

So, to ease up the situation, he straightened up himself, and politely said,

"Good day, ma'am."

The woman immediately began to tremble as he spoke to Fujimura again, "F-Fuji… you… you know who this boy is!? Right?!"

Despite the dramatic change, Fujimura remained calm, "Yes, my friend, I know. But I ensure you, he's not going to throw a tantrum or hurt anyone. He's being nudged to the good path."

"But we saw him-"

"That was in the past, Miss Kachiko. Please, trust me. Black is not that rampaging kid anymore."

The woman swallowed and hesitantly turned to look at the boy, who was trying his best to do a good impression. He knew he still had a scowl look on his face, so he tried to copy White's friendly grin. His mouth twitched upwards and let his teeth to be shown. Even though he tried his best to smile, it turned out to be a sick and twisted sadistic grin. He couldn't see as White facepalmed himself when he saw how terribly Black failed to grin friendly.

The woman seemed to take the good-hearted sadistic grin the wrong way and she shook more. She stepped back one step and with a shaken tone, she whispered,

"C-come and sit h-here, please. J-just don't h-hurt me, okay?"

"Thank you, ma'am." He let go of Fujimura, but in that instant he let his injured foot take more weight than before, he stumbled forwards, making all the workers shriek in fear and jump back reflexively. He couldn't even have the chance to fall, as White was there in a flash and grabbed his older brother. He grinned as he put the scarred boy's arm around his neck to support him.

"Wibbly-wobbly, Blacky-wacky!" White sang much to his brother's annoyance as he led him to the chosen chair. He sat down, while the others took seat somewhere around and were calmly watching the woman hesitantly preparing her work.

As she put the blanket-like linen around the boy's neck, she accidently put it too tight around the boy's neck, and he instantly let out a small groan of pain. As if she was bitten, she immediately sprang away from the chair and held up her arms, despite Fujimura's yell to stop acting childishly.

"I'm-I'm so sorry! Please, don't hurt me! I'll loosen it!"

Despite the choking feeling, the boy remained surprisingly calm and polite, "Thank you, ma'am."

Somewhat calmed by his politeness and knowing the police is here aswell, the woman finally got down to her work and almost forgot who her client was. The boy bore with the constant touching surprisingly well. The moment she first touched his hair, he felt the urge to punch her in the gut and run away from the place as far as he could, but he had to restrain himself from doing so. After about ten minutes later, he got used to the feeling and relaxed his muscles.

Miss Kachiko was doing the finishing touches on his hair when suddenly due to the small nervousness she still had in her, the scissor slipped off from her fingers. She let out a yelp, and instinctively pulled her hands back instead of reaching for the tool.

Black however, was not someone to have slow reflexes. The moment he saw the metallic tool flying from his head, his muscles began to work and he caught the scissor in his hand with perfect ease. He turned to the red head woman who was now again trembling since Black had a weapon in his hand. Everyone stood up and some of the workers began to shout something like "trustworthy?!" or "killer".

Time seemed to slow down and the woman saw the pain and grief in the boy's eyes as he twirled the scissor, so the blades were pointing at him and stretched his arm out to the woman so that she could take that darned thing. In an apologetic tone, he said,

"You dropped your scissor, ma'am." He looked down, "And I don't want to hurt you. I'm sorry."

That was the moment when Miss Kachiko felt most ashamed ever in her life. Up until this day, she never have forgotten this moment. Those sorrowful eyes, she will never forget.

Her expression warmed and she gently took the tool,

"Thanks, boy. Just a few snips and you are done, okay?" she said warmly. The boy silently nodded, still not averting his gaze away from the floor.

The rest of the time they spent at the saloon was not much and was spent uneventfully.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" White yelled as they sat in the car again, this time headed for some office of one kind to create their ID. The darker half of the siblings, who now had gotten his old look with a little spike back looked at his brother with interest. His hair wasn't as short as it used to be, but it was in the same style, but slightly longer.

"What?" he asked in a bored tone.

White grinned and he ruffled his own hair up and he shook his head like a dog would do when it shakes off the water. He looked like as if he had gotten out from a wild fight or something else.

"Guess what I am now!" he chirped.

Black smiled, "A crazy maniac, who just got very friendly with electricity."

White grinned in reply, "Perfect! You perfectly told me your own look!" Black let out a fake-hurt gasp,

"Why you-!" he began to tickle his brother who screamed in laughter, but their fun was ended by Fujimura who was devastated at how the two looked by the end of their playfight. Sawada could only laugh at those two.

They both looked disheveled but for the first time, they were both laughing and smiling happily.

Just one small step, but still it is a valuable one.

And they were about to get their pictured taken for the ID.

A long journey they had in the future indeed.


	10. God is Mad (At Us)

Chapter 10

God is Mad (At Us)

_Oh just remember, Wanderer,_

_To not follow the Light which is warmer,_

_Instead walk a path brighter,_

_For sorrow and anger,_

_The only cure is laughter._

"Hello? Hello? This is Agent White, last report in Japan, planet Earth, Treasure Town! Today, we make our last preparations!"

_For Hatred can consume you further,_

_It's cold fangs make you surrender,_

_Sadness seeps into your heart deeper,_

_Happiness now torn asunder._

"We's gonna take pictures! Fujimura says we need them to get a home! And I, Agent White will go to school!"

_Is your Fate sealed, Wanderer?_

_Will you become a savage murderer?_

_Or a passionate lover?_

_Cold to the bone or Good-doer?_

"Black had a haircut! I mean, he still has it! But still! He looks weird! But better! I guess… And! I also ate a pie! And didya know? I didn't steal this time! I gots it from Pa!"

_Colder, brighter, warmer, darker,_

_In the end it matters not, Wanderer,_

_At the ends of Time, there is one real Answer,_

_When you face the Reaper._

"…And from now on, we will be good! We will never hurts people! This is a promise I will keep! But if we do hurt bad people, then sorry! We do it to help!"

_Filthy sins become clearer,_

_Truths will consume the meaner,_

_Far will come nearer,_

_Brighter becomes Darker,_

_As dark glows brighter._

"I even took a bath! Well, kind of! But this time, water came down! Poured, I tell you! So it wasn't a bath! It was a slower!"

_Fear not, Wanderer,_

_Paradise awaits You with it's grim gate keeper_

_Before entering, you will have the answer_

_When you face the Reaper._

"Agent White keeping the peace!"

_Oh, fine Dreamer,_

_Continue further,_

_And smile wider,_

_When you face the Reaper._

"Over and out!"

Black was reading a newspaper Fujimura had in the backseat of the car. While their adopted parent went into an office to take care of some important paper business, he left the kids and his subordinate outside, since as he knew this paperwork would be done swiftly.

While he was off and doing business, White grabbed this opportunity to make a phone call which was observed by Sawada and Black decided to shun away boredom by reading the newspaper. He was sitting on top of the car, his legs hanging down off the side of the car. Currently he was reading a freelancer poet's poem which was placed at the back of the paper, entitled, "_When You Face the Reaper_".

_Someone had a one-track rhyme line_, Black thought as he closed the newspaper and watched Sawada interacting with White.

The officer was currently baffled by White's weird phone call who just happened to put the receiver back to it's holder with a proud smile.

"White? Who were you talking to?" the little boy turned to Sawada with a goofy grin,

"Well, to God of course!"

The blonde police officer raised an eyebrow and knelt down to the boy's level, "God never uses a phone, White. You pray to God."

White sighed and shook his head as if Sawada was the one who didn't know anything about God at all. Smiling to himself, Black folded his legs indian style and watched them on – he already knew who will rise as winner in this argument.

"But that is why I call him! He is so busy answering prayers and punishing the bad guys, he just can't listen to everyone!"

Sawada chuckled, "And I suppose you know God's number? And how do you call him without money?"

White now put his hands on his little heart and started to talk slowly, "I dun need money to do that. Belief helps. I trust God. That is enough. He knows my heart, since he took my screws. Since he knows everyones heart, everyone can reach him. Didya know that you are missing screws too?"

Sawada felt uncomfortable and shifted his legs as he let out a long vowel, making Black snicker. God was White's favorite topic – if someone dared to have a discussion about God, they would always lose to White.

Oh, but White was just warming up, "See? You miss screws too! So, since God is busy, I leave him messages! That way, he can listen to it when he takes a break! God is very busy, don't be mad at him if he's not answering you always!" He grinned, "Besides, I always told God how things were and look! Black and I got a father!"

Black scratched his head with an amused look on his face, _You wouldn't be alive without a father conceiving you in your mom, White._

Before White could continue to torment Sawada further, the entrance to the big building opened and the boys' adopted parent emerged. White hurried to him, while Black turned himself, so his legs were once again dangling from the top of the car again. Fujimura gave him a scolding look and gestured the older boy the get off the car. With a grunt, the scarred boy pushed himself off and casually walked up to the older police officer.

"Everything went smoothly but there was a mistake regarding Black's birth date." He now glanced at the older boy who raised an eyebrow, "Turns out you are only fourteen. I had to make a few phone calls to the orphanage to confirm it. Seems like the person responsible for storing data made a mistake when typing up your birth date."

White did a little count and spoke up, "So he's only older by two years?"

"Two and a half." His older partner corrected and put his hands in his trouser pockets, "Does that mean-"

"You will still get into juvenile prison if you commit a crime!" Fujimura sighed, sensing his adopted teenager's question. "No weapons, no aggression, Black. Please. We are about to leave Treasure Town." He gave the teenager a sorrowful look, "Look, inside this building, the people know about you and White's deeds. But mostly… about yours."

The teenager crossed his arms, "Continue."

Hesitantly, the older man continued, "Meaning, don't cause any trouble. They only do the job because the police is here."

White glanced at his older brother who snorted and turned his attention to the wall behind Fujimura, "Look, if I'm not provoked, I won't do anything. People are mean to me, as you could see. But don't expect me to idly stand by when they insult me."

"Black!" Fujimura raised his voice making the teenager turn his attention to him, "Just behave! You will never change if you won't try!"

"I never wanted to change!" Black spat back.

"Black!" White snapped as he popped up next to him, "You promised!"

The scarred boy growled and bowed his head. White was right. He promised.

**Black…**

The whisper was small, slick but in his mind. He immediately snapped his head up and looked around, making the others look at him with confusion.

**Had if you have chosen me, you would be walking your own path, Black…**

Oh, God no. Not now…

"You okay, Black?" Sawada asked as he too stepped up to them. People around them passed by, some of them recognizing the kids and hastening their footsteps, others ignoring and going on.

"…Yeah." The scarred boy shrugged and ignored White's concerned look, "Let's go."

Still with slightly confused expressions on their faces, the small group now entered the large building.

The entrance hall they arrived in was huge - the walls were made of beautiful white marbles, bordered with shimmering gold poles. There were also big, heavy pillars which were standing firmly by the sides of the pretty deep crimson colored carpet that rolled out invitingly for all newcomers to come inside.

"Woaaah!" White immediately tore himself from Sawada's hand and began running around, "This place is aaaweeesooome!"

"White, we didn't come here to have fun!" Sawada yelled and started after the boy who now began running around people, pestering them.

"I think White should have his picture taken first." Black said casually, his hands in his pockets, standing calmly beside Fujimura, ignoring the frightened people around him, "He's going to take a lot of time."

"In that case, wouldn't it be logical to have yours taken first?" the older man asked, eyeing the boy who in response pointed at the frightened people around him,

"Look" He pointed at a man, who began to shake and sped out of the building, "at the reaction I trigger from onlookers." The boy moved his index finger to point at another man who in response ran to the rest room "You really think they won't piss themselves just by talking to me?"

"Pointing at people is rude, Takeru!" Fujimura hissed and as gently as he could he grabbed the surprised boy's hand and shoved it back to his side, "If you provoke people of course they will be frightened!"

"I didn't provoke them!" the teenager argued, "I just showed you how scared they are!"

"Pointing at them won't make them feel at ease around you!" the boy rolled his eyes,

"What, White points at people randomly and he is not a person to be afraid of."

"On the other hand, White is friendly towards people." Fujimura replied, and continued before the boy could respond, because he was getting tired of this conversation "Look, Takeru, if you want to fit in-"

"Which I don't want…" he mumbled,

"…You have to change your approach a bit. I'm not saying to change who you are, just your approach."

The teenager pondered on his words. Change… he never wanted to change. Indeed, it would be better if people started to cooperate...

Maybe loved him? What was that like?

He heard of people betraying each other, or sacrificing themselves for their loved ones.

What was it like?

As he was thinking about this, thanks to his sharp senses he developed on the streets, he heard small whispers of conversations not so far from him,

"Look! That's Fujimura! With that insane kid and his brother!"

"Fujimura's talking to the demented kid. And he's still alive!"

"What are they doing here? Is he gonna put that kid finally in jail?"

"Is that kid gonna be executed at last?"

His expression turned cold and before Fujimura could ask him what's wrong, they heard White's yell,

"Pa! I'm gunna go first!" he grinned and bounced while holding Sawada's hand, "Then Black can come too!"

**I told you… This world is not for you…**

_Shut up._

**Love dies. People who love end up being corpses.**

_Shut up already._

**Hate and truth. Blood and tears. That is the world, Black. Love never ends up in life.**

_Just…_

**Trust and betrayal. You really think someone like YOU will end up being loved?**

_SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!_

"Black?" Fujimura's concerned voice snapped him from his thoughts.

"Hmm?" his eyes turned to him.

"I know this is hard… To try to fit in…" the older man put a hand on the boy's head to which he warningly hissed in response. The adopted parent ignored this and affectionately ruffled his hair, "But I know you will do your best. We'll help you."

"Get. Your. Hand. Off me." The boy hissed in a warning tone, "I don't like being touched."

The policeman's expression turned sour as he slowly slipped his hand off from the boy, "What happens if someone touches you accidently?"

"They don't." he snorted and took a step away from the officer, just in case.

The policeman slowly shook his head and began walking towards the waiting lobby, the teenager slowly following behind. However, since his leg was still not fully healed, he was wobbling slowly. The adopted father watched sadly at how the boy was managing his way alone, a stoic expression on his face. He wanted to help him but knowing him, he'd bite him the moment he touched him again which was weird, since back in the saloon he accepted his help.

The waiting lobby was empty when they got in, but within minutes, a few people arrived too. None of course sat next to the pair they all stood patiently and gave nervous glances towards the teenager. The boy tried his best to ignore all the fearful or hateful looks he received. How the hell should he fit in if everyone… well, with a reason, but hated him?

Do they want him to say sorry?

Hell, he'll never ask for forgiveness. For what? For doing everything he could so that his brother and he could survive? He would never ask for forgiveness. If he had the choice to go back in time, he would make the same choices he did. No regrets. That's how he lived.

To his and Fujimura's surprise, the two-winged door opened and White came out with a spring in his steps, "Done done done and done!" he chirped and began bouncing, "You up, Black!"

"That was fast." Fujimura commented as he stood up with the teenager, "This usually takes more time."

While Sawada had a sour expression on, White had a small smile on his face, "Well, they said they don't want any trouble. Quicky flashy splashy! Black, you'll be done in no time!"

"I guess." He grumbled as he stood beside the older officer.

"Sawada, take White out to the car. We'll be back in a minute. C'mon, Black." Sawada took White's hand while Fujimura – ignoring the warning Black gave him before – put his hand on Black's shoulder and ushered him inside. This of course was not appreciated by the boy who snarled in response,

"Hands off, Fujimura."

To his voice, White gave a scolding look to his brother who ignored that and glared at the man leading him. The man only gave him a gentle nudge,

"Consider it as a step towards being nicer. People will like you a little bit more if they see you can be touched."

"Bullsh-" he couldn't end the word as he was now inside the smaller office where three people were already waiting for them. That gave him a small surge of insecurity but didn't move a muscle.

A big portion of the office was occupied by a big cabin – Black presumed that was the place where the photos were taken – and a big, lean and long desk that divided the office into two. Behind the desk stood the three workers and neither of them seemed to be very happy. In fact, it was safe to say they were downright pissed and angry at the teenager who just entered the small lobby.

_I have to be nice. I have to be nice. I have to be nice._ He chanted to himself as he walked inside, Fujimura right behind him.

"Hello…" he tried to sound neutral, or at least, friendly.

"Good day to you, sirs." Fujimura said behind him a tone of approval in his voice. Okay, he did the entrance well.

"Please, come inside." The one who spoke to them wore a pair of glasses and his hair was really short and cut in an old-fashion. He didn't seem like a very flexible person personality wise. Behind him stood his colleague who was bald and wore a bandage on his head and seemed to be the most pissed of them all. The third man excused himself and left the lobby.

"Sit." The old-fashioned man said simply.

_I'm not a dog_, Black wanted to say, but he swallowed the comeback and walked up to the desk and slowly sat down. His wound throbbed dully, but luckily it subsided since he got the haircut. It seemed like the more he moved the better it became.

He looked at the man and tried his best to give a subtle smile but the gesture was not returned, instead Mr. Glasses – as he nicknamed him in his mind – kept gazing at the papers. But the Bald Man on the other hand did not take his eyes off the boy. Black had the inkling feeling that their past was connected at one point. Shit.

"Takeru Nishimura." The man read it out in a bored tone, "Adopted brother of Shinji Nishimura and adopted son of Fujimura Nishimura?"

"Um…" Black said dully. He always thought of White as his true brother so the question threw him off. Indeed he knew they were not related by blood but still… he thought of him as his blood family.

"Yes." Fujimura helped the boy out.

"Thank you, Officer." The man said politely and returned to his cold tone when addressing the boy again and this time he looked him in the eye with his coldest expression he could muster, "Signature please."

He wanted to run away. Run away and leave this shame behind to not care anymore, live freely, not wanting to have responsibilities, bond, or anything. He looked at the paper and eyed the line that required his signature. With a slightly shaking hand, he tried as delicately as he could to grab a pen and hovered the pen's tip above the paper. This stayed like this for long moments until the man spoke up,

"Hurry up. We don't have all day… boy." Fujimura gave a scolding look to the man and turned to the teenager with a concerned look,

"What's the matter, Takeru?" asked the policeman gently.

"I…" he couldn't say it. It was far too shameful, he hated it. He loved literature and this… this was horrible. "I…"

His fears came alive when the man in front of him grew a smug expression and crossed his arms, ready to attack verbally,

"Well I say." Mr. Glasses spoke up sarcastically, "The fact that your little 11 year old brother can't write is one thing, but you… You are fourteen. You must know how to write."

Run. He wanted to run away.

"Sir." Fujimura scolded him verbally this time and once again looked at Black,

"Is that true? You can't write? But how did you sign that form I gave to you?"

Ashamed, Black looked at his lap, "I just... scribbled 'Black' illegibly."

Fujimura let out a surprised gasp and gently took the pen from his hand, "Alright then, I'll sign it for you. But next time, you have to do this, okay?"

Black nodded and watched as Fujimura quickly curved a few lines, creating his fake signature.

"Now naturally this would be illegal, but to you, mister Fujimura, we'll look this one over for this once." Mr. Glasses said in a very boot-licking way.

Fujimura was about to respond when his cell phone rung. He quickly looked at the caller's ID and paled. Then he glanced at Black, "I have to answer this. I'll be swift."

_No. No. Don't leave! No!_

With that, he immediately put the phone to his ear and disappeared behind the winged doors.

_Shit._

"So…" Mr. Glasses pulled his glasses down to wipe them with a handkerchief, "You are the infamous little brat who caused all that ruckus in town."

_Fuck._

"This little fucker" the bald man now spoke up and cracked his knuckles trying to intimidate the boy but who was not in the least scared. Instead, his eyes narrowed as a familiar feeling welled up in his gut. And that was definitely not fright, "A few weeks ago, he beat me up with a fucking metal pipe."

"Mr. Hiroyuki." Glasses said with a patient tone, "Please refrain yourself from physical violence. This kid did enough. Besides, you wouldn't know how my son got beaten up a few months ago? And had his schoolbag stolen?"

_I must… remain… nice…_

**For what? To get insulted further?**

_No, no, not now… I have one chance only…_

"No… sir…" he tried to remain polite, "Can we please proceed further?"

"Hey, _kid_." The bald other guy said, making Black's blood boil again, "Is it true that you harbored feelings for that brat you always hang out with?"

Black clenched his hands into fists as rage started to build up inside him, "No. I'm not attracted to men."

**But I can imagine you impaling you with a steel pipe…**

Mr. Glasses sighed and glanced at Hiroyuki sideways, "Stop it, you'll get into trouble." He then coldly looked back at the scarred and now fuming boy, "Now, to get this over with…"

"No way!" the bully interrupted, "He's become a little wimp. If he doesn't behave nicely, he'll be in trouble alright." He grinned, "Let me have this fun, partner."

Hiroyuki walked up to the desk and slammed his hands down onto the desk, taunting the boy who did not move an inch and still had his signature scowl on his face, "I saw you drinking blood, punk. Is that a sick fetish of yours?"

**Don't hold back… let him taste HIS OWN blood.**

"No. I don't drink blood."

The man snarled as he leaned closer, almost knocking his colleague out of his chair, "Do you know what else I have heard?"

**I can hear something. The bells OF YOUR FUNEREAL!**

"Can we please... Proceed?" Black snarled.

"Hiroyuki, stop! That's enough!" Mr. Glasses begged but he was knocked away by the stronger man,

"According to your bio…" began Hiroyuki mercilessly and grinning madly, "I can legally call you son of a bitch. You know why?"

His rage was now seeping into every bits of his being. His fists were clenched so tight, his knuckles grew white, and he was now snarling. He was getting very pissed.

"I… don't… care…" he hissed, "Can… we… please… just…"

"Your mother was a whore! She was such a lowlife little bitch that she didn't even have an ID, she left her filthy nametag for identification! And not only that…"

_This… This cannot be true… No…_

**No one loves you, Black.**

_I don't want to hear it… No…_

**You are a no one. You have no place.**

**Listen to me.**

**To me…**

"She even left YOU at the orphanage! Seems like she was so poor she had no money for abortion!" in the end, the man was laughing hysterically. "Life IS a bitch, huh?"

**Snap.**

Black's head was hung low so they didn't see his face when he began to shake.

"Hiroyuki, enough!" snapped the weaker man out of the two.

The older bully smiled with pride, "Look! I just made that filthy brat cry! Look! He's weeping like a baby!"

"Hehe." The smooth cold voice of the boy was heard, surprising both men. He was giggling with bone freezing calmness.

"What the fuck are you laughing at?" Grumbled the big bully.

"At your face." The teenager continued staring at his lap and giggling childishly his teeth now shown.

"My… face… Why are you-" he wanted to finish his insult but Black's head snapped back up, and his eyes were unfocused as he grinned madly,

"BECAUSE I'M GONNA TEAR IT OFF!" he screamed and in the next second, the said bully was tossed back from the desk and landed on his backside with the teenager on his chest, his arms around his head in a vice like grip. Hiroyuki screamed too as the boy was grinning at him madly,

"WHY SO SOUR, HIROYUKI?" he screamed and before the man could react he headbutted him, cracking his nose in the process. The man screamed in pain and tried to shake the boy off of him.

"FUJIMURA! COME QUICK!" the desperate colleague escaped from behind the desk and was speeding towards the door just in time to catch the officer who almost rooted to the floor when he saw Black was attacking the man.

"Black!" Fujimura yelled but the boy heard no one as he kept laughing in a demented matter.

"HELP ME!" Screamed the victim as he trashed from side to side to yank the boy away from himself, "HE'S GOING TO KILL ME!"

The police officer quickly got to the other side of the desk and approached the dueling pair and tried to pry Black away from him,

"Snap out of it, Black!" Fujimura yelled. He was acting just like White did when he threw a tantrum weeks ago. But instead of hurting himself, he hurt people around him.

To the officer's horror, the boy looked at him with a demented grin, some saliva trickling out of the corner of his mouth and his eyes seemed unfocused. He let out a grunt and now moved his hand to scratch the man's face of literally.

"Black, stop it! What did you two say to him?!" he asked the officials as he tried to keep Black away from the man's face.

"NOTHING!" yelled the victim, "WE ARE INNOCENT! HELP ME, PLEASE!"

With all his strength, Fujimura managed to pull Black away from the man but now he was clutching onto him, his nails digging onto him, scratching him in protest.

"HE'S A DEMON! KILL HIM, KILL HIM!" Hiroyuki was clutching his bleeding nose, groaning and whining about the pain, while his colleague immediately began giving him first aid. This was getting pretty serious and bloody. Fujimura did not believe this was really happening. Black was okay minutes ago… what could have happened?

"Black, stop it! It's me, Fujimura! Enough!" the boy kept trashing from side to side and grunting incoherently, when suddenly the old man recalled how Sawada calmed the younger boy down. Well, it was worth one shot.

The policeman sighed, and tossed all his doubts away and forcefully but not harshly embraced the boy in a comforting manner.

The boy's movement began lagging and he stopped grunting, so the man recognized this as a successful way to calm him down, so he tried walking this way, "It's alright now. No one is going to hurt you."

The boy stopped moving, his breathing slowed down and slowly his eyes became focused again.

"M-Mister Fujimura…" the one with glasses began, "C-could you… p-please… take him… out and…"

"Fine." The policeman replied and without letting the boy go, he snatched up the papers which were needed and lead the confused, slightly bloody boy out from the office.

As they ventured out, people kept looking at them with gasps and flinching away from them, so they had plenty of space to move. Black, even though he hated contact now hid behind the older man, not wanting to face the rage of other people. He unintentionally clutched his adult partner's hand tighter the first time in his life wanting someone's supporting touch.

They exited the building without any events and at the top of the stairs Fujimura stopped the teenager and knelt down to his level to wipe to blood off of his face. The boy kept up with the constant touching surprisingly well but he didn't dare to look into the eyes of his adopted father.

Confusingly, instead of receiving harsh lectures Black was sure he would get, he was given a sorrowful look and a gentle toned question,

"Black, what happened in there? I want to know the truth."

"Does it matter? You believe them, right?" he spat back sourly.

"Honestly? No. You wouldn't have done that. You were fine. They must have done something to tick you off."

The boy paused. He couldn't believe his ears. Fujimura… was taking his side? That never really happened in his life, thus he was very surprised. Usually it was he who received the lectures about behaving well and rants about community and laws. But now? He was given a chance to tell the truth.

"They…" he swallowed, "they said bad things. Insulted me, and kept mocking me. Told me how my mother was a bitch." To that, Fujimura stopped with his wiping motions and looked at the boy with wide eyes. The scarred teenager only shrugged,

"Whatever. Thought so. That big bully said that I was left by my whore of a mom, blah blah blah. Then all I remember is that you are pulling me off from him. I was blinded by my rage." He hung his head and said the words he hated very much but knew they had to be said, "And I'm sorry. I failed, right? I really did try but…" he clenched his hands into fists, "Talking about my mother like that set me off. Even though I never really cared but still…"

For the umpteenth time that day, Fujimura surprised him by talking to him gently, "Like every other sane person would go in a rage if someone was talking about their parents like that. While I agree with your rage, you should have done it slightly… nicer." He said with – a smile.

Of all the times, Fujimura was smiling at him?!

"But… Fujimura… about the photos…" the boy began.

The adopted parent's hand landed on the top of the boy's head, still smiling, "We have all the necessary papers and information. We'll take your picture in the next town where people won't judge you falsely."

"…" the boy's eyes were concealed and Fujimura didn't get it first why the boy didn't respond.

"Takeru?"

"Hands off, Pa." he said with a small grin.


	11. Legend of the Protector

The Legend of the Protector

It had been a few days after the incident with the photo booth. Black had to return to the hospital to finally remove all the remaining stitches in his body. Even though they all planned to leave the day they took the pictures, the doctor insisted to take note of the healing boy's condition and remain in the town for a day or two.

For those days, the boys were temporarily accommodated in the police station, much to their caretaker's colleague's annoyance. The boys didn't do anything bad, but the fact that they were there just unnerved the adults – also from time to time, one of Black's pets came to visit that only was another layer of unnerving factor to add on. As days went by, the boys were forbidden to leave the station for their own safety (and Black had to stay put so that his wounds were healing faster); from inside all they could do was watch the remaining of the town slowly getting destroyed, only to witness something new, alien being built into it's place. For most of the day, the boys were sticking to the window like glue only leaving it to do all their necessary needs.

Thus, the last day had come, for real now.

It was the coldest day of the week. Even though it was approximately 10.00 AM in the morning, it seemed like even the Sun was reluctant to climb up to it's cold throne. White was already putting on his clothes and checking his stuff calmly. In his mind, leaving was the only option they had and he was more than glad to leave. He was fed up with this city and he was very excited about the new city Fujimura was talking about. So, with his mind now set on his new journey, he got on a pair of jeans, which was two size bigger than what he was supposed to have, pulled on a lightblue pullover and a black jacket that had a white star on its back. The jacket, just like the jeans was bigger than it should have been. As he zipped his jacket up, he couldn't help but wonder about what Fujimura said about the town.

He said this city is located in the embrace of the river Ao, thus the city was named Blue Town – but it can also be called Azure, Sapphire or even Fish Town – it was a harbour city, with lots of water and docks everywhere. It was also the capital of the fishing market, as the fish exported from there were of the best quality in the country – and that was because river Ao was the clearest river in Japan, despite it running through and around the city. When White asked why, Fujimura said there is an old legend that speaks about the purity of the water. When the old man said this Black snorted and got out of the room, uninterested – to him these stories were fairytales and thus not even worth the attention. Plus, he wanted to procrastinate packing in as much as possible. He was still reluctant to leave his beloved town.

"Fujimura, can you tell me that legend of the river?" White asked with sparkling eyes, holding onto his bag of belongings, which was sadly not so full – he had not much stuff at all. He ignored the fact that Black was not by his side – he was probably moping in their room, staring out of the window which White grew bored of and was very interested in that legend Fujimura mentioned.

The elder man sighed as he leaned down to grab White's bag, "It's just an old tale, Shinji. Why are you so interested? Takeru!" Fujimura yelled as he stepped out of his office, followed by White, "Takeru, get your stuff ready! We are leaving in a minute!"

"I'm not finished!" came an annoyed yell from their shared room, making Fujimura roll his eyes,

"Well, hurry up then!"

"I wanna hear the story! I like tales and legends!"

"Alright, I will tell you later when-"

"You can leave me here!" the Black barked back from the room.

"We're not leaving without you!" Fujimura yelled.

Black's grumble was heard and the duo started towards the exit of the station.

As Fujimura and White walked together in the hallway, one of Fujimura's colleague was coming from the opposing side, a small evil smile on his lips. White never knew who that man was, only that he and Fujimura never really talked much and if they did, it never was pleasant.

White walked closer to his adopted father as the man in uniform approached – he looked the same age as Fujimura but his face looked more weary somehow. He had a five o'clock shadow, and his hair which was longer than Fujimura's, was starting to go grey. To White, it looked like the man had very cold golden eyes, but in reality, it was a rare mixture of green and brown. As they were walking, the man gave them a smirk and changed his direction towards them, blocking the hallway,

"Well, Fujimura, this is your last day here? You are leaving with your -" his gaze shifted to the scared White, "kids?"

To White's surprise, Fujimura's voice went very cold when he replied, "Yes, I am. Now please, " he motioned for the man to stand aside, "let us go our way. We would like to leave as soon as possible."

"I wouldn't stay a moment longer, my _friend_. Someone happened to put something in my coffee and let's say, made my day quite unpleasant." His eyes were throwing daggers at White who held onto his adopted father, looking innocent. "I'm sure your _kids_ know nothing about it."

"Black was staring out of the window all day, and I was packin'. Wasn't us!" White chirped but that only made the man angrier and before he could teach White a lesson, Fujimura cut in,

"They may have been delinquents before, but they are under _my_ care now. They have changed."

As silently as a cat can walk, the fourth participant of the conversation appeared just behind Fujimura and White,

"Hey, Fujimura, I've packed my-" Black said as he was walking towards them, his messenger bag thrown across his shoulder – just like White, he barely had any belongings, so the bag seemed almost empty. He was also wearing a pair of jeans, but these were just like in White's case, bigger size than what he would be wearing; a dark blue shirt and a black jacket that had graffiti all over it. Even if he wanted to look nicer he just couldn't as these were the only warm clothes that weren't bloody or too shaggy to wear.

The scene however he walked into looked unpleasant so he left his sentence unfinished and silently walked towards them. As he was closing on, he seemed confused about the situation.

_That man_, he thought as he looked at the golden-eyed man who now looked at him, _he was the one who was always running to the restroom. What's his deal with Fujimura?_

"Ah, so there he is!" the man said dramatically, "The little black lamb of the flock!"

Black's eyebrows drew dangerously close, _that man is dead._

Fujimura chose to ignore his former colleague and turned to Black, "You ready, Takeru?"

The scarred boy looked at him, "Yes I am Fu-"

"Takeru?" the man echoed, voice dripping with sarcasm and making Black glare daggers at him, "He has a name?"

Black was about to snap back with a snarl but Fujimura intervened, "That is enough, Kishamoto." He snapped and glared at the man, "Shinji and Takeru are my responsibility, and they will become normal, decent citizens. Not rotten trash like most of the people here."

With that, he held both of the boys' hands and led them around the mean police officer. Black eased his snarl, but his eyes were still blazing with anger, while White had a slightly frightened look. Even though the older boy hated to touch people, ever since Fujimura defended him a few days ago, he let small touches be made by him. Basically, he was the only adult who had the authority to touch him lightly. White on the other hand was glad that someone was holding his hand and he was looking at Fujimura with a confused expression. He never head Pa talk like that.

Just before they could exit, Mr. Kishamoto gave one last bitter swipe to the old man,

"I'm sure that's what your dear wife would have wanted. God bless her soul."

The old man stopped, just at the entrance of the station, earning silent looks from the youths from both sides. The silence was deafening. Both of the boys thought that the man has just crossed the line.

"Don't you dare…" they heard the old man whisper, "…bring her up now."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." The man sighed in fake sadness, "I didn't mean any harm, really. It's just that, now you can _really start the family that you always wanted_."

Both of the boys blinked and thought in unison, _he had a wife? _both of the boys' eyes sharpened,_ this man needs punishment…_

Fujimura turned back and glared at the man, hatred and fury swirling in his eyes, while his opponent was smirking – despite the intense emotions visible in his eyes, Fujimura's posture was surprisingly calm and collected. But instead of the violent conversation that should have been taken place, the flaming trail of conversation was crashed by Black's innocent statement,

"Pa, I've gotta use the restroom."

"I gots to peepee too." White piped in, following Black's lead.

Before Fujimura could say anything, both of the boys let go of his hand and ran off while White yelled, "We gonna be fast!"

"I just hope these brats won't pee everywhere." The man hissed and Fujimura just gently shook his head in disgust,

"They are children, not animals. They behave more human than any other human I've ever came across."

Mr. Kishamoto rolled his eyes and turned away from him, "Whatever. This town is glad you are taking those mongrels away. Your last deed was a very good one, Fujimura."

"Last deed in _this town_, Kishamoto." The older one hissed, "I'm taking the boys away for _their_ own good. Not for this dead, rotten excuse of a town."

"Hmph. Whatever, old man." He took a step away from him, "Just when you return, do so without these punks. Or if you do return with them, make sure they are in a coffin."

"You are disgusting, Kishamoto."

The younger man ignored Fujimura's comment and started to go deeper into the station. Just as he was exiting the hallway, both of the boys appeared, slightly running, a glint of mischief in both of their eyes. Since Fujimura was still in shock of what his ex-colleague have said, he ignored the boys' suspicious smiles and left the building with them, this time he was not holding their hand, but they both were walking by both of his sides.

Sawada was also helping getting everything packed in; he was currently sitting in Fujimura's car, waiting patiently for the remaining people to get in. As he was watching them exit, he saw how gloomy his superior was – which surprised him. He thought he would be fighting with Black to get him out of the building and was expecting White to run to him and ask for his aid.

They packed into the car and the older man ushered the kids to get inside. Just as they got in and before shutting the door on them, out of nowhere, a small feline black bullet rocketed towards them, jumped through the opened door and landed on Black's lap. With a concerned look, the scarred boy looked at his adopted father,

"Nefertiti wants to come too."

Sawada blinked from the driver's seat, "You named your cat Nefertiti?"

"Yeah." Black replied as it was the most obvious answer in the whole wide world, "She's a female and a cat."

Fujimura sat in the passenger's seat with a sigh, "Doesn't bother me, neighbours just don't care. You can keep her, if you want to."

To that, Black gave a small smile and cradled the black feline who kept purring and sometimes blinked at White as a sign of trust.

"Ready to go?" Sawada asked, and both of the boys replied with a yes with different volumes. One was happy and harsh, the other bored and monotone.

The engine roared into life, and the four of them started the journey. After approximately thirty minutes or so, White recalled an earlier conversation of theirs,

"Pa?" he asked from the back of the car, earning everyone's attention aside from Sawada's who was driving,

"What is it, Shinji?" the elderly man asked, slightly glad that White was asking something and thus, removing himself from bad memories he was starting to re-live.

"Can you tell us the legend now?"

"Can I get out of the car?" Black asked, annoyed. He was starting to feel suffocated in this car. Sure, he was used to riding in one of these (he sometimes hitchhiked if he wanted to get to his destination fast) but he never really liked closed spaces. And they were only on the road for more than thirty minutes; and according to Fujimura, the trip takes around two hours.

"The story is not that long, Takeru. If you'd like, you can sleep while I tell Shinji the story."

"Hmph." Black hugged his cat close. He didn't want to tell Fujimura that he would easily become nauseous from sleeping in a moving object, so he let it go.

"Anyways," Fujimura continued, "This legend is said to have happened in the Dark Ages, where no real written memoirs remained, but the stories were passed down by our elders."

_Meaning, they are just silly stories_, Black thought as he was looking at the passing buildings with a flat look.

"There was a time when an especially cruel Emperor was ruling the country. He didn't rule for a long time, because not so long after he got onto power, he made a mistake - Azure Town.

This was the only village that openly rebelled against the emperor and since it was just a small village back then, the Emperor thought he would teach them a lesson.

He ordered his men to burn up all the food and necessary resources from the village and make sure no one has an ounce of food or water left. He would give everything back only on the condition that the village bends to his will and support.

And since the village was located in the embrace of a dried up gorge and there was only one bridge connecting the village with the world, it was impossible for them to get outer help, not with the guards waiting at the other end of the bridge.

But little did the Emperor know, was that village was the home of a very sacred and strong medium clan."

_I was expecting shamans_, Black snorted.

"What's a medium?" White asked.

"Someone who can speak to ghosts, apparently." Fujimura said with doubt in his voice, "back to the story…

Swearing revenge, the head of the clan, the high priestess began praying in the center of the village and she encouraged the villagers to do so. Or summoning… I don't really know what they do." Fujimura said, deep in thought, "Anyway… Night after night, despair drove the villagers to start praying with the high priestess – and after days of suffering, the miracle happened.

That fateful night, the Emperor himself decided to show up and end this all. As he was standing on the bridge with his soldiers he asked the high priestess one last time to bow to his will, or the whole village will be slaughtered. The priestess stood at the foot of their land and said something the line with, they never will, and if he will continue his evil deeds, the spirit of the dragon will swallow him.

Not believing the priestess' words, he ordered his soldiers to attack… And out of the dried out gorge, like a geyser, a furious snakelike dragon emerged with a tsunami and washed the Emperor and his soldiers away, leaving the bridge surprisingly undamaged.

It is said the body of the dragon was of pure water, glistering in the Sun's rays in many colors and it was very gentle to the villagers. To the priestess' plea, the dragon remains around the now blooming town, ensuring safety and protection to it's residents.

Years have passed and the priestess gave life to sons and daughters. On her deathbed however, she had many visions of the future, and asked her offsprings to take on her duty and continue protect the town with her powers." Fujimura finished.

"Wow…" White said, totally in awe, "That was so cool!"

_That was so lame_, Black thought, unimpressed.

"So… There's a dragon around the town?!"

"Dragons do not exist, White." Fujimura said as he was looking for some papers in his briefcase, "But if you are so interested, here one of the priestess' premonitions." He said, as he handed a paper to White, who shoved it into Black's face, who groaned,

"What?"

"I can't read! Read it for me!" White asked, waving the paper into the boy's face. With a grunt, Black took the paper and looked at the so-called premonitions. Nefertiti was now sound asleep in his lap. Annoyed, he read the premonition out loud, not really understanding a word,

"One will become two,

Lies will bite into Truth,

The Truth flees into Lies,

As Death will arise.

Its scythe will get someone dear,

That is when the Protector shall appear.

There he flies the broken Raven,

He shall save the tainted maiden,

The light shall help from beneath,

As the Dragon grits its teeth.

Its scales will be brighter than ever,

It will come to ease its hunger,

As it is Justice it wants,

And will serve Judgement with its claws.

Oh, what I see is but a torment to the mother,

My lips are quivering, I now wither,

The time will come for the last fight,

It will be the war of darkness and light,

The battle between bloods, it shall be,

The Dragon and the Serpent will be set free.

Biting and clawing into each other, till death they go,

But which shall be victorious, that I do not know."

"Huh..." was all White said.

"This is stupid." Black said aloud, "None of this makes sense."

White shrugged and struggled to get his backpack from his lap onto the space between him and Black, "I liked that poem."

"That was a premonition not a poem, White."

The fact that White's bag was heavy made Fujimura curious. When he saw White packing, the bag was empty. He couldn't have…

"White!" Fujimura suddenly said, surprising both of the boys, "What's in your bag? It wasn't that heavy hours ago."

White gave Fujimura a huge grin and unzipped his bag, only to reveal a lot, that means, a LOT of rolls of toilet papers. The older man's eyes widened at the content,

"Why… Why do you…have…?"

Black also unzipped his bag and revealed he was also carrying a notable amount of toilet paper rolls,

"We thought of giving your colleagues a parting gift." Black said with an evil grin.

"Old habits die hard!" White chirped.

Even though Sawada was driving, he still laughed at the kids' prank,

"You guys are insane!"

Fujimura's eyes narrowed as he recalled the day. Mr. Kishamoto went to the bathroom a lot that day as he said there was something not right with his stomach. If the kids stole the papers, then that means…

As the realization hit him, his face fell at first, making both of the kids alarmed but then, for the first time in years, Fujimura let out a long, genuine laugh, making all the others smile a little.


	12. A Colorful Monochrome Town

Author's Note (Slightly Important):

Whew! It took some time but it is finally done. Hello there once again and I give kudos to those who are still reading this story! I'm really trying my best here and this new chapter took more time than it should have, I know, but let me tell you that I really had gone through a lot. A lot of things had happened to my friends and me and I don't think these happen to everyone (or atleast, people think it might never happen to them) and these events had inspired me a lot.

So I had to rewrite the ENTIRE plot and as I was writing this story, I still added some new patches and stuff to it that were not in the original plot but I do think it is going to make it better, believable.

Also, expect a lot of original characters throughout the story as it progresses. This is a new town after all.

Plus I'll include some Fun Facts at the very end of the story!

Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Tekkonkinkreet and it's characters. They belong to Taiyo Matsumoto. I own my own characters.

Also if my grammar is incorrect, that is because English is not my native language.

- A Colorful Monochrome Town

The small breeze of winter gently chilled the small port town, Azure city. The town itself was several hundred years old, most of the buildings built then were still intact, but also most of the others were either renovated, or rebuilt to stand against Time's iron fangs. The town itself just like Treasure Town was situated in the embrace of a river, therefore there were a lot of docks situated on the edge of the city. One of these docks was by the main bridge that connected Azure town with the world. Right at this moment, the old and slightly rusty white car was speeding on this main bridge. The two elders who were sitting in the front were silently chatting about their future – how they will help the younger officer to get his stuff to their place, and how they will help get the older one's house get back in shape. Fujimura inherited this house from his great grandmother and originally, he planned to reside here in his old days, when he resigned; but now that he had adopted the two orphans, he had to come here earlier than he originally intended.

In the back of the car, the two children and the cat were sleeping, obviously not used to traveling such a long distance by car and the motion lulled them to a calmer state of mind.

However, this state of peaceful time was rudely interrupted by the harsh sound of a nearby ship's loud and long booming horn, jerking both of the juveniles and feline awake with wildly beating hearts. Fujimura peeked behind his seat to see the two ruffled up kids looking for the source of the loud and obnoxious sound.

"What waz that?" White asked alarmed as he pushed his face against the window that was on his side of the car, "It sounded like a dragon's roar!"

The older counterpart of White pulled his clothes tighter around himself, as being unconscious for a little while cooled his body temperature down and he was feeling slightly chilly, not to mention he was also becoming nauseous because he fell asleep while riding in the car.

"Dragons don't exist, White." Black mumbled as his glare was fixated on his window – he was desperate to get rid of that sickly feeling in his stomach and he calmly answered White's question, "It was a ship."

"As I said earlier," Fujimura began, making both of the boys turn their attention to him, "Azure town is a port city. There are a lot of boats and ships docking here at the edge of the city all the time." As he said that, they just passed the layer of docks and were entering through the city's main gate.

"In Winter?" Black inquired curiously, which was rare coming from him, "What are they doing here at this time of the year?"

"Exporting, perhaps?" Fujimura wondered aloud and turned back, "Azure city is famous for its fish."

"…but in Winter?" Black echoed.

"Exporting is done no matter what the season is, Black." Fujimura replied. White yawned and Black crossed his arms as he tried to gaze sternly, but sleepiness still fogged his eyes,

"I see." He muttered and turned his attention to their surroundings.

Even though it was winter, not a single flake of snow touched the ground, so they could view the town in it's natural state.

Azure Town's past could still be seen in the modern days, especially on the buildings. Most of the houses had either small gardens or courtyards which were the fragments of remnants of the long, wide fields they used to be. These houses were made out of bricks, which once in their prime time used to be a bright red color, but now they were just ashen grey and had an old aura around them.

However, not only these historical remnants remained here – there were big, old and modern looking apartments, storehouses and many, many marketplaces. Time seemed to jump around in Azure Town – in one part, one could vision how the traditional, old houses looked, in the next street, the last half of the 19th century was present, and then a few corners later there was the modern, 21st century present. However, as mentioned before, the marketplaces and stalls were always present, no matter which district or street one crossed.

While Treasure Town was suffocatingly stuffy, Azure Town had wider streets and less garbage on the street – which was very strange for White as he loved to dig around in random trashes and boxes. Guess he had another habit to give up, but he didn't really mind – he was very eager to walk around in this new, clean town and make friends with children his age. To White, this city was full of opportunities and chances which he was more than glad to take. He already loved this town, which was busting with life with all these markets and gardens around. He giggled as he curled his fingers around the neck of his coat and flattened his face against the cold window – he was very, very excited to get out of the car and begin their new life.

Black on the other hand felt disgusted. He hugged his pet cat up to his chest, still wanting some warmth and that animal was just perfectly giving it to him. Luckily Nefertiti didn't mind, instead, she put her paws on his left shoulder and put it's face into the crook of his neck.

The boy didn't mind, as his thoughts were drifting astray, wondering about their new "home".

To him, this town was just too clean, even with all these stalls and marketplaces. Yes, there were a few homeless people here and there, but the first thing he noticed was that this town had very little or no warmth at all. In Treasure town, at least the whole city looked lively, everything was colourful and fantasylike but this…? This town was dull, monochrome and lifeless. It reminded him of the time when he was all alone in town and even only thinking of it made him shiver lightly. He never wanted to feel so cold, lonely again, so how could he start a new life in a town that simply smells of fish and death? Knowing only tidbits of the town's history, the residents here would likely to hate outsiders or atleast, will not warm up to them instantly. He had his doubts about this town.

As they were continuing their way to their destination, something caught White's attention and yelled out,

"Woah, what's the big deal!?" both Fujimura and the older boy turned their attention to the smaller youth, "There is some so many people here on wheels! This town is weird!"

"Wheels? What are you-?" Black didn't really need to move to White's side to see what was making him so excited, as right next to his window, something fast zoomed past, making Nefertiti startled, and accidently scratch her owner in the shoulder.

They were bikers alright – but not just a few. There were atleast 5 bikers coming up from behind and the side of them, zooming past the car, making it look like a colorful and fast wind had just whipped past them. After the first pack of riders passed, the second group came into the line of vision, whom seemed to have more professional bikes and riders aswell. Not only that, their numbers seemed to be higher aswell – they were atleast 15 bikers speeding behind and next to them. This bigger group was more courageous than the previous gang – they zigzagged between cars, unafraid of the dangers that would occur if they lost only a breath of their momentum.

Black and White watched with unmasked awe as these new, professional bikers jumped over smaller obstacles instead of just getting around them.

"A gang of bikers?" Fujimura grunted deep in thought, "The chief of this station hasn't mentioned this to me." The old man had a serious expression on his face, "Great. Another gang to deal with."

"You gonna adopt them too?" Black snorted which earned a glare from White.

"These guys are something." The younger officer spoke up after being silent for a while and totally ignored Black's sarcastic question, "I saw the first small group of bikers, but the second, larger one… they came out of the blue!" Sawada looked slightly disturbed as he steered the steering wheel.

"Not just that." Black was surprisingly communicative that day. He moved away from the window and faced his foster father, "It seemed like the one with symbols were chasing the ones without symbols."

"Symbols?" Fujimura asked, "What kind of symbols are you talking about?"

The scarred boy rolled his eyes, "The ones that were on the backs of the second pack of gangs. " he said in a bored tone, "Probably just the sign of their gang, nothing special."

"It will be one of the first things I will inquire of when I get to the station." Fujimura confirmed as he looked at the scarred boy thoughtfully. That boy was quite observant, as he could conclude many things in a very short amount of time. It really would have been a waste to just let both of them rot on the street.

"Is it a fight between gangs then?" White asked from his older partner who shrugged,

"Don't know." Black said as he began stroking the black cat's head. "Don't care." Then, since he was looking down at the cat, the wave of nausea that was there all the time he was sitting in the car hit him harder than ever, his stomach did bowel-breaking backflips and he could already feel a lump forming in his throat and some pressure in his jaw. _Shit._

White of course was the first one to notice his foster brother's growing distress so when he glanced at him and saw how miserable state he was in, so he immediately asked,

"Black? Are you alright? Your face is turning green."

The older boy finally decided it was time to voice his discomfort, but he could only managed to let out a grunt,

"Ugh….sick…" he managed to say weakly, swallowing his pride. He definitely didn't want to throw it up instead, but his voice was so weak, neither Sawada nor Fujimura heard it. Only White did, but he misheard what he said,

"Six…?" White insisted, not really getting what Black meant, "Six what?"

"Car… sick!" Black moaned painfully and put his hands on his mouth, closed his eyes and tilted his head upwards trying to calm his stomach down. The constant pulling that came from the car was making it even worse, he was also starting to feel dizzy. If this keeps up, he sure is going to make some stains on the car's carpet that's not going to come out easily.

"The car is sick?" White asked, bewildered, "I never knew cars could get sick! That's why ours never moved?"

Luckily for Black, Fujimura heard White's questions, and when the boy asked about cars being sick, the old man immediately understood what Black's problem was, so he quickly took action,

"Sawada, stop the car! Black is feeling carsick."

"Shoot." Sawada mumbled, "Alright, hold on Black! I'll try to park slowly, alright?"

The boy didn't reply as he was very busy to keep that lump in his throat in it's place. His head was tilted back, resting on the seat's headpillow and kept taking breaths slowly. White didn't really understand what was wrong with him. He himself was fine in the car, he didn't feel sick at all, but why was Black so feeling under the weather? He had no problem zigzagging between objects on the streets, jump from roof to roof, glide down from the sky, but he gets really sick in a car? Why was that?

Sawada really did his best to park the car as slowly as he could. The road they were using was not so busy as the main road, so he could park safely. The side which Black was in was facing the pavement and buildings, so if he wanted to take a walk, he was able to or, if he wanted to rush in a shop's bathroom, he also had that opportunity.

As soon as the engine stopped, Fujimura told White to stay put, got out of the car and opened up Black's door, who was holding his face in his hands, his head still tilted backwards which made him look like he was either in agonizing pain or was praying in a weird way.

"Alright, Black." Fujimura said gently, "It's okay. Not everyone can bear car rides. Just get out, walk a little, take some deep breaths and you'll be fine. We're not so far from our new home, so we are through the worst." He held the door open for the boy, who now finally started to move and gently tried to warn him, "But before you get out, don't forget to-"

Black forgot his seatbelt was still buckled in so as he tried to move out, his seatbelt pulled him back, surprising and paining him, as the belts constricted his stomach that was very sensitive now. His face was now turning into paler shade of green.

"…unbuckle your seatbelt." Fujimura ended his sentence and the annoyed, scarred boy pushed that button and felt glad being free of his constraints.

The scarred boy slowly got out of the car, his legs were trembling and he was still feeling horribly dizzy. However, as he was standing on solid ground and there was no motion that was pulling him any way, his stomach has started calming down. He moved out of the opened car and leaned against the side of the trunk with closed eyes, still concentrating on calming his ruffled up system.

"Stupid goddamn piece of fucking shit tin can on wheels." He mumbled groggily, earning a disapproving glare from his foster father.

As he took some deep breaths, he immediately noticed the change of air here. Without opening his eyes, he already knew he was smelling the sweet scent of clean water. Now back in Treasure Town they had lived near the river, but that didn't have any sweet scent, instead it always smelled of garbage and salt. This scent was entirely different and a lot cleaner than what he was used to.

His lips formed a thin line. Fine, the scent here was better, but… He opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. Fujimura was waiting by the door, concern written all over his face – some of the passing people curiously looked at them, and some of these people even stared at him strangely.

One woman in particular walked up to Fujimura to ask what the matter was and how could she help. His foster father filled her up with the details, and Black continued to try and further relax his body. This would have been an easy thing to do, but somehow the fact that random, unknown people were staring at him strangely started to unnerve him. Why were they looking at him like that? He didn't do anything wrong in this goddamn new town!

**Escape.**

The cold voice echoed in his mind. The young boy's eyes widened and he stared at the cold, grey pavement in front of him – suddenly he could see really clearly and even picked up small details, like how there were only a few small butts of cigarettes were thrown on the pavement, how most of the women of the town wore high heeled boots, how the passing men wore combat boots to protect themselves from the cold.

Even though he tried his best to keep the voice out of his head that slick voice did not shut up,

**He is busy talking with that woman. Now's your chance. No one knows you here. You never wanted to leave. White can live with him, for all we care. We can start anew without them.**

Leave? Now? He tilted his head sideways to glance at his foster father from his peripheral view. He tightened his muscles in his leg and mentally started to ready himself to jump at any moment. He turned his attention to the building in front of him. It looked like a normal apartment and there were big metallic trashcans on the side of the building. His eyes followed the imaginary trail he was drawing. He needs to know if there is anything he can use to climb on because from where he was standing, he could only see the trashcan and if he climbs up to the trashcan and is met with a flat wall, he is screwed. No problem, he thought to himself, there has to be another way. He continued to scan the area and further down the road he saw a fire exit. If he could use that and run up to the top of the-

"Oh so that's it. Car sickness is really nasty." The woman sounded sincere and had no malice or sarcasm in her tone, "And I know we've just met and I'm just… literally a stranger, but can I ask… what happened to your son's face? Why does he have a scar?" the woman asked sweetly and hesitantly. "I'm interested, because I'm a nurse… if I can help with anything, I'll gladly help."

Black felt his entire body tense and freeze up. His… scars? His hand unconsciously lifted itself to the scar that was crossing his right eye. So that was the reason people looked at him like that? His scar? But he can't erase that. In fact, that scar meant a lot to him, that was his 'prize' his symbol of growing up, it will forever be a part of him, whether he wants it, or not but… will everyone be looking like that because-

"He had a terrible accident when he was little." Fujimura replied swiftly, surprising Black. The boy knew his foster father was familiar with his fight from back then so it startled him how quickly he came up with a story, "We don't really like to talk about it."

"Oh." The woman sounded very ashamed of herself, "I'm so sorry. I really didn't want to pry into your private lives or anything it's just… he looks so lost and innocent. I couldn't imagine what could have happened to him."

Innocent…

**She only says that to impress you and Fujimura!** The voice hissed, **She's lying! All women lie! They are only tools for breeding! Nothing else!**

A random stranger who doesn't know him at all just called him innocent…?

**Stop this sentimental bullshit and pull it together! This is our cue!**

Unbeknownst to him, White's head popped up beside him and watched his brother calmly. Even though they exchanged no words, he knew what was going on in his adopted older brother's heart – to White, Black now symbolised a disoriented and lost bird who was still not used to his new, bigger cage of fate and was trashing around in it.

The scarred boy was standing still in shock, one hand still resting on his eye and he was still just staring ahead of him, unsure of what to do. One part of him was burning with the desire to just turn around and run away as far as his legs could carry, but another part of his just stayed rooted to the spot, clinging on to the hope that somehow, someway he really can start anew with this new patchwork "family" of his.

"Both of them are good boys." Fujimura said with a smile, once again breaking Black's insane train of thoughts, "They just… were in the wrong crowd for a while. But now they'll have a new chance at life, that's why we have moved here. And to be honest, I'm really glad someone actually stopped and asked what happened. People forget how to be human sometimes."

**He's lying to worm himself into your trust. Black, you know better than this.**

"I'm afraid I have to agree." The woman said sadly, "In my line of work, you meet the kind of people whom you think the world would be better without. And you said earlier that…"

The scarred boy clenched his hands into fists and his younger foster brother could feel the change in the older boy's aura; this colder, sinister feeling frightened White. It felt like something cold had suddenly swirled from his stomach to his chest, then it opened it's wings and spread the fear throughout White's body. This feeling… Black's darkness was slowly seeping around and pulsated around him, each pulsation was getting stronger and White felt like something in his mind was screaming.

But it was not just any kind of scream.

It was a primeval, raw scream that was filled with anxiety, hate, pity and sorrow.

White didn't know what made Black so dark again. He was here, why is he so sad?

To both of the boy's emotional whirlwind, Nefertiti appeared and rubbed herself against White's thigh but this little sign of affection couldn't help to change the situation here.

"…you just moved here?" the woman sounded genuinely surprised, irritating Black further, "In that case, welcome to our town! Hope you all will have a nice life here."

"Thank you very much." Fujimura replied politely, "I think Takeru is feeling much better now that he had some fresh air. We should be heading to our house soon."

"Oh in that case, can I say good bye to them? I see your other son appeared aswell!"

"I think they could use some new company." Fujimura agreed.

Then much to White's horror, he heard footsteps which were heading towards his and Black's way. If that woman does just as much as appear in front of Black or touch him, she could end up seriously injured. His darker half was starting to have one of his newly developed rage fits and White was willing to do anything to help Black start a new peaceful life in this town – even if it meant fighting him for his own good.

Before White could say something to snap Black out of his depressed state, the younger boy felt a soft hand landing on top of his head,

"My, aren't you a cute boy!" the woman said kindly. She had long, silky black hair and she was wearing a long brown fur coat and knee-length high-heel boots, "You are brothers, right? Family and health are the most important values in the world. Don't forget that." From what White could tell, she looked like a full-blooded Japanese woman, a rare sight for him. Treasure Town was full with mixed-race people. The boy momentarily forgot about the growing danger beside him and replied with a full grin,

"Yes, ma'am, I agree!" White chirped happily, "Are you a mom?"

"I'm afraid I'm not" the woman laughed kindly, "Though my husband and I would really like to have one kid someday. How old are you, little one?"

"I'm eleven! Almost!" White replied happily, "And I can count to ten!"

There was a small flash of surprise glinting in the woman's eye and White couldn't really understand why she was surprised. The woman then quickly smiled and turned to the darker boy, making White's worry once again resurface. Black was still gazing ahead and his hand now slipped to his side, the dark and cold aura still embracing him, but it seemed like the woman didn't really feel this or if she did, she completely ignored it.

"So, he's your older brother, huh?" the nurse walked in front of Black and got down to his level. White shot out from the car but he was too late as the woman already put her hand on top of the scarred boy's head, making the youth snap his head up and gaze coldly into her eyes.

"Get your hand off me." He hissed warningly.

_Oh no_. White thought and was about to tackle Black when the woman's voice halted his actions, and startled the angered boy,

"I see you've gone through a lot. Your eyes tell a lot about you."

And all of a sudden, White felt the menacing atmosphere disappear as if something had cut it down. Black also felt his tension and anger dissolve and what only remained was emptiness. He was gazing into the woman's kind brown eyes as she continued,

"This is going to be a very long and hard journey, but you have a family to back you up. You'll do great, especially with a cute brother like that." The woman's smile grew wider, her voice echoing in his empty, vast mind, "And about that scar of yours? When you get older, it's going to be a chick magnet, trust me. Girls love scars and you are both going to be handsome devils when you grow up." With the last statement, she straightened up and gave each of them a smile and a wave and left.

"Well, Black?" Fujimura walked up to the boys, "You feeling any better?"

The older boy nodded, "Yeah." He turned his head to look at his foster father, "And my nausea is gone too."

Fujimura looked a little bit puzzled by his answer but accepted it nonetheless, "Alright. Can you bear just twenty more minutes ride? We're not so far from our destination."

"Fine." The older boy mumbled as he waited for White to climb in then he followed. Inside, White gave him a reassuring smile which he mirrored, just for him.

He was feeling better, yes.

Not _much_ better, but still better. This town was still rotten, still hated here, but if there are people like this woman here then maybe he is going to give this town a chance.

**Not this sentimental bullshit again. We came here to claim our new territory.**

He then leaned back and the engine roared to life,

"We are going to have a lot of cleaning to do, boys." Fujimura said suddenly, "The house was not used for ten years, so we are going to have to work a lot just by today to at least have a place to rest for the night. Everything is covered in dust."

"Are you sure you not adopted us to be your servants?" Black grumbled but there wasn't any malice in his comment like as before earlier in the day.

And just like before, his comment was ignored, "And I'm also counting on Sawada to help us clean the bedrooms. You boys can use the guestroom to sleep in tonight and tomorrow we'll make arrangements to have your own separated rooms."

"And in my own room," White said suddenly very excited by the news, "Can I have my drawings posted up on the wall?"

"Yes, you may." The old man replied gently.

"And in mine," Black mocked White's childish tone, "Can I have the bodyparts of my nemesis' nailed on the wall?"

"Yes you- hey!" Fujimura then turned to face a grinning Black, "I hope you were just kidding and don't plan on going genocidal!"

"Who knows?" Black crossed his arms and stared out of the window, "I'm not even sure anymore."

"Black, stop being so mean." White pouted.

"…" the scarred boy just continued staring and after a while, he spoke up quietly, "Can I keep Nefertiti and Poe inside my room?"

The old man turned away from him, "I can't promise you that. It also depends on the animals too, you know. How do you know your crow knows where you are?"

"I can hear him caw. He's circling above us since we started from Treasure Town." He put his scarred hand against his jaw and still kept staring at the sky, now noticing some black feathers and wings on the edge of the window.

Fujimura's voice now turned apologetic, "Black, there are a lot of crows in the world. How can you differentiate Poe's sound from other crows'?"

"Black found Poe as a baby bird a long time ago." White answered knowing full well Black was okay with him answering, "We are used to Poe's caw. His is different from the others'. We cants tell, but our hearts know when Poe is here or not. Dunno. Overnatural thing or what."

"That's _super_natural." Black snickered into his palm, "But yeah. Unexplainable, but we just know."

Not really knowing what to say to that, Fujimura simply let out a grunt of approval and kept his attention on the road.

The jingles of keys were heard and then the mechanism of a lock being opened. The door gently got opened and it revealed the nurse from earlier that day. She sighed as she finally got home after her long morning shift. She walked in and closed the door,

"Honey! I'm home!" yelled a female voice into the darkness. She got out of her long brown fur coat and started fidgeting with the buckles of her boots, "You hungry?"

"Hey there, Tweetie." Her husband's low and friendly voice greeted, "No need for you to make dinner. I already ordered some Chinese earlier. It should be arriving soon."

As the woman finally unbuckled her boots, she reflexively pulled the sleeves of her shirt up, revealing many, many scars decorating her wrists and lower arms. To strangers it might have looked like she once dug in shoulder deep in a drawer of knives. She straightened up and smiled at her husband.

His shoulder long light brown hair was once again in a ponytail and his white wordless eyes were sparkling with joy, "So how was your day, Tweetie?"

"Just the usual." The woman said sweetly and embraced her sightless husband who returned it eagerly, "I've met a small family on my way. They just got into town."

"Really? That's nice. You should invite them over dinner sometime."

"We didn't get that friendly." She giggled and lightly pulled away from him just to put her forehead against his, "It was a small family of a man and two kids. Neither of them seemed to be related to each other. And those kids…" she paused for a second, "They both reminded me of my past self. They reminded me of how I was before you found me and picked me up from that horrible place."

"Hmm." The man said thoughtfully, "You can still invite them over for dinner. Now I'm interested."

"You want to feed everyone don't you?" the woman scolded her husband half-heartedly, "Don't be so kind-hearted, dear. It will be our downfall."

"Now that you mention it," the man began happily, "I invited over my cousins for tomorrow for lunch!"

The woman let out a sigh and hugged her husband tighter with a grin, "You know I hate their guts, right?"

"Yeah." The man laughed, "That's why I invited them. You have to learn how to socialize with people you hate. You can't always invite Arisa. She's a busy woman, you know."

"You bastard. But I love you so I don't care about your cousins." The woman kissed his earlobe. "And I get to eat your portion of rice."

"Hey!"

Unbeknownst to them, a certain crow had zoomed past before their window, shadowing a certain white, old, rusty car to their destination. As soon as the car stopped, the young crow finally leapt down from the sky and elegantly landed on top of the vehicle and patiently waited for his two owners to get out of the car so they could play on the roofs again.

And lo and behold, all of the riders got out of the car including the cat who lazily began to stretch. White walked up beside Black to observe the building they are going to reside in.

The house they arrived to was fairly big and as old fashioned as the ones that they have seen when they entered town. It was two story house, the roof was dark red and it even had a balcony. Both of the boy's first data they approvingly noted was that the house was easily climbable even if they used the windows from the inside.

Their new home was before them.

They finally arrived.

Fun Fact Time!~

The nurse and her husband are based on a real couple who are really close to me. Their story and the suicidal marks are also real she is not there to be just a random plot person. I've changed their story a bit, but the main gist of it is the same.

Black's conversation with his split personality and behaviour is based on a real person's who suffers from split personality. Although, this person's way more severe, Black's is "only" mildly bad.

This time, White could feel Black's insanity rise and die in this chapter first hand by being beside him. This was loosely based on my own personal experience when a man in our neighbourhood had turned insane and went suicidal and I heard him go from desperate to insane and then there was this frightening silence which White feels too. I'm not going to go into details right now, but this memory haunts me still. Let's just say this is a very, very light interpretation of what I felt back then.

I don't really have a dad, so if Fujimura is acting a little bit weird, that is my lack of having a father.


	13. Author's Note

I'm so sorry for those who clicked on this chapter and hoped for an update – I hate this personally too that I expect a new chapter and all I see is a note from an author stating that they give up. It is very sad to see that and I feel utterly heartbroken that I'm doing something similar. Yes, similar – I would not like to give up on this project entirely, but I do realize that I am unable to do this through the end just like I wanted to. The more I colored out the plot, the more I realized that I want to do my own story, with my own characters and preferably to it as a comic.

I really like this small creation of mine (small…? I intended to follow these guys till their deaths) so I thought about an alternative: I have fleshed out characters with stories and even plotlines that I think are well written/thought out so I was thinking about writing only one shots. Instead of taking everything step by step as I originally intended, I thought about giving you glimpse into the future. I kinda did it in the other collection I have, where one of the protagonists' mental health gets worse and ends up using drugs. I also planned out how that person is falling into despair and how that spirals out in the end and what consequences it have. Quite surprising actually, I think, haha.

Anyway, I don't think I will be updating this beast, but instead I will have the other story updated from time to time (When I have time to write, really. I have a life and it is going quite smoothly at the moment and I really, really want to draw my own story, so that also takes away time from this).

I already am thinking of which plot should I write about because I have many ideas in my mind. Of course, all of these characters will be older (around 24-25-26-28-ish, yes, I deliberately left out 27, ha) so they get into way more serious and adult situations.

I'm so sorry that I couldn't provide a chapter for those who are still faithfully reading this, but I promise: those one shots will be worth the wait.

Yours sincerely.


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